This from the Vice Marshall...
A
small presentational error at Thursday's Greengauge 21 HS2 conference in
Birmingham, when the Scottish Transport Minister was the speaker following Sir
Richard Lees, leader of Manchester City Council.
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
According to a Press Release...
Anticipating progressive improvement in energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions from the rail, aviation and automotive sectors, the work, which was carried out by ATOC shows that high-speed rail could offer a huge saving in carbon compared with air travel and result in 70% less carbon per passenger-km than would be produced from a totally modernised electric car fleet. Against a mixed car fleet, in transition away from petrol/diesel engines, the advantages would be even more dramatic: HSR would produce 30 times less carbon per passenger-km.
"The basic point is this:”, said Greengauge 21 Director Jim Steer, “to achieve lower carbon in the transport sector, we need to provide a better alternative to flying or driving medium/long distances in Britain. High-speed rail offers the transformation needed to make this possible”.
Are we seriously expected to believe that by the time HS2 is built electric cars will have the range and speed to compete with rail, let alone high Speed Rail on inter-city journeys?
The Tories have also announced a reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet.
Not many moves, but interestingly they have chosen to create a Shadow brief for Energy and Climate Change:
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change - Greg Clark MP
Shadow Minister for Climate Change - Greg Barker MP
Shadow Minister for Energy - Charles Hendry MP
Their opposing numbers on the Government front bench are:
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change: The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP
Minister of State - Mike O'Brien MP
Minister of State - Lord Hunt of Kings Heath OBE (jointly with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs); and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Joan Ruddock MP
A nice long list of names that uber-consultant Jim Steer and Greengauge21 can get their teeth into.
Posts
