High-speed Rail

Richard Burden Excerpts

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

One of the things we have seen in recent years is freight switching from road to rail. HS2 will have the advantage of freeing up the capacity on the conventional railway network, which will see that renaissance continue. We hope that it will have even more force behind it than it has had already.

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

Today’s announcement is very good news for Birmingham. May I say to the right hon. Lady that two things are just as important as our connectivity to London? The first is connectivity to the north, so I ask her to act on the optimistic noises she has made about possibly changing the hybrid Bill to include the second phase. The second is to ensure, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth) said, that HS2 unlocks potential in the local transport network in and around Birmingham and the wider west midlands. Will she take that on board? Those are the things that will really maximise the benefits of HS2 to the midlands.

[Justine Greening]

I will take both those things on board, and indeed I will be in Birmingham tomorrow. When we look at high-speed rail in other countries, we see that the countries that have had the most success with it are those that have looked at projects more broadly, so we must ensure that HS2 provides broader connectivity than just to the areas it drops in at.