This really is just too good.
The Treasury Select Committee, chaired by Andrew Tyrie MP, has launched an inquiry into “The Economics of HS2".
And quite right too.
But what's this!
Tyrie has appointed, as a specialist adviser on transport economics, one Stephen Glaister.
Glaister, readers will recall, is of course the widely respected Professor of Transport and Infrastructure in the Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London.
He also just happens to be the director of the RAC Foundation; an organisation which, as any fule kno, is implacably opposed to new railways.
Here is Prof Glaister, in full modally agnostic flow, in a 2010 piece for the Gruan's Comment is free:
“The brutal truth is that for all the attention lavished on the railways, not least by politicians, it is a niche activity and will remain so – even if capacity is increased by a quarter, or a half, or even doubled. Anyway, significant expansion of the rail network is out of the question. Or at least it should be.”
Good news indeed for those looking for a balanced study into the economics of HS2.
Eye wonders what on earth could have induced HS2 denier Andrew Tyrie MP to appoint Glaister to such an important role?
No matter.
The select committee's first session on Tuesday 5 November will hear evidence from a range of witnesses both pro and anti the new North-South railway.
Eye will be listening with particular interest to the views of the last witness, who also hails from Imperial College...
