High Speed 2 Railway Line: Freight

(asked on 8th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies on High Speed Two of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Report entitled Better Delivery: the challenge for freight, published in April 2019; whether High Speed Two will deliver the required additional capacity for future growth in freight; and what costed alternatives to High Speed Two his Department assessed to deliver similar future freight capacity.


Answered by
Paul Maynard Portrait
Paul Maynard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 13th January 2020

Government is considering the recommendations of the National Infrastructure Commission’s study on the future of freight (Better Delivery: The Challenge for Freight, April 2019) and will respond in due course.

By replacing long distance passenger trains that currently run on the existing railway, HS2 will release spare capacity, particularly on the southern part of the West Coast Main Line. Subject to the outcome of the Oakervee Review and decisions by Government on whether and how to proceed with HS2, DfT expects to publish a Full Business Case which includes an assessment of the implications of HS2 for the freight industry.

Reticulating Splines