HS2balls, or 'The Silence of the Lords'

Westminster and Brighton alight today with suggestions that Labour is wobbling on HS2

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said in his set piece conference speech:

"We continue to back the idea of a new north-south rail link.

"But under this government the HS2 project has been totally mismanaged and the costs have shot up to £50bn.

"David Cameron and George Osborne have made clear they will go full steam ahead with this project - no matter how much the costs spiral up and up. They seem willing to put their own pride and vanity above best value for money for the taxpayer.
 
"Labour will not take this irresponsible approach. So let me be clear, in tough times - when there is less money around and a big deficit to get down - there will be no blank cheque from me as a Labour Chancellor for this project or for any project.

"Because the question is - not just whether a new high-speed line is a good idea or a bad idea, but whether it is the best way to spend £50bn for the future of our country."

Andrew Adonis has mostly not been tweeting about HS2 today...

Gideon strikes!

So farewell iDave!

Your time has come, and gone.

For some of us, not a moment too soon.

And who wielded the knife?

Why, officials in the department of your best friend - Gideon George Osborne!

Or so we are led to believe by Wednesday's FT, which suggests that notoriously competent "senior Treasury officials" are looking to cape HS2 in favour of more roads.

Happily, it looks like constituencies in the Chilterns will get all that they wished for and possibly deserve (sic).

Meanwhile, which way will the ever loyal Patrick McLoughlin jump?

For Eton or St Paul's?

UPDATE: HS2 Comes out fighting!

This from HS2's 'Project Manager for Ambassadors and Advocates' (who knew? Ed)...

The FT piece represents nothing more than nonsense scare mongering re: HS2:

• The project has wide political support across the country
• Any cost increases as a result of adding VAT are returned to government - the true cost remains the same
• All at HS2 and our supporters recognise the importance of controlling costs and the necessity of continuing to delivering this vital piece of infrastructure on time and on budget
  

Errr... that'll certainly tell them!

DfT High Speed site crashes

Well there's a surprise!

The DfT's High Speed Rail website has crashed.

Yet again the Department for Transport shows just how good it is at anticipating and meeting actual demand.

Do Christmas Turkeys have privs?

This from Smalltrousers...

It's often said that the modern railway has a touch of the surreal about it, but maybe none more so than this.

The Railchat forum (billed as "The Professional Rail Staff chat site) is currently hotly debating the HS2 project.

The site's members are firmly in the skeptic/anti camp and have backed using as 'slightly more objective" evidence that High speed is highly polluting from none other than 'Transport Watch'.

Those familiar with Transport Watch will know them as the people who've long campaigned against the rail industry and called for the entire network to be torn up and converted into roads.

So, we have a rail staff opponents of HS2 supporting, as 'objective', an organisation that wants to tear up the country's railways.

Turkeys evidently can and do vote for Christmas!

Hammond fiddles while Derby burns

After a busy morning defending the arduous task of 'opening envelopes' it is good to see that the Secretary of State is still able to relax with friends.

This from the Campaign for High Speed Rail...

House of Commons launch for cross-party high speed rail group

A new cross-party group supporting high-speed rail has launched today at an event at the House of Commons. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which is a powerful new voice in favour of building a new high speed rail line, has already secured the backing of MPs from across the political divide and is chaired jointly by Graham Stringer MP (Labour) and Stuart Andrew MP (Conservative).

Speaking at the launch event Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said:

“I am delighted that our plans for high speed rail have such widespread cross party support. This is a major project in the national interest which will take many years to complete and will benefit hugely from being taken forward with all-party support."

No doubt Cowardly-custard will soon be assuaging irate Chiltern residents with the comforting mantra that HS2 is all the fault of the previous government?

HS2 - Nimbyism alive and well in the 'nasty' party!

This from Channel 4 News...

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond faces protesters who are campaigning against the new London to Birmingham high speed rail line route.

Channel 4 News Political Correspondent Cathy Newman has learnt that at least two ministers may resign if the route is not changed.

Welcome to the New Politics or, in old money, Nimbyism.

Forget the LibDems tearing the coalition government apart - clearly the Tories are more than competent enough to do this on their own.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, probably best to wait till the 20th October when the whole HS2 thing will be declared unaffordable.

So all in all a non-story.

Tories slide tackle Adonis

So the Tories have killed the consensus on High Speed 2.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers has declined to "give a political blank cheque to Labour" by refusing an advance view of the Noble Lord's HS2 White Paper.

Villiers also made clear that the Tories reserved the right to look at alternative routes.

Whilst this will raise a collective groan from the railway industry it makes sound political sense.

With sources suggesting Adonis' plan for HS2 will show the proposed route with a margin of error of as little as 25 yards there would have been howls of anguish from Tory constituencies in the Chilterns; None of which would actually gain any benefit from the new line whilst suffering all the pain of planning blight and construction works.

The other political benefit is that it hangs the Noble Lord out to dry. Non consensus allows the plans for HS2 to be kicked into the long grass for at least another Parliament, which with the current parlous state of the country's finances makes fiscal as well as political sense.

That said the Tories will need to come up with something else chunky if they are not to enter the election 'transport lite'.

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

I wonder if the decision by the Tories to pour cold water on Lord Adonis HS2 White Paper is in anyway connected with this story in today's FT?

The transport secretary has told London’s mayor that it is “not acceptable” for the capital to seek extra money to fund improvements on three underground lines, in a sharply worded reply to the mayor’s request.

Just asking that's all.

UPDATE: This, surprisingly enough, from Niccolo Machiavelli...

Labour would seem to have the Tories in a fianchetto if they publish the route of HS2 between London and the West Midlands before the election.

If the Tories support the route they alienate their own voters in home counties constituencies where Labour cannot prevail whilst merely sharing the credit in West Midlands constituencies where Labour is likely to win.

If the Tories criticise the route they can be portrayed as home counties toffs prepared to put their golf clubs ahead of the transport needs of the West Midlands

But with Adrian Shooter allegedly advising Theresa Villiers, the vision of Evergreen 5 could provide an effective counter.

And the Tories also have IEP up their sleeve (shome mishtake, shurely? Ed).

As I say in my book 'The Prince' (available as a Penguin Classic for only £2.99 from Amazon):

"The wise ruler does not overlook the cunning of ex British Rail engineers risen to high office".

UPDATE: This from Sun Tzu...

Can I support Signor Niccolo's comments on IEP being a Tory asset?

As I say in my book 'The art of war' (available from Amazon in paperback price £3.00):

"A highly expensive chariot fails to terrorise fleet footed infantry fighting in a swamp'.

That's enough dead psuedo management philosophy gurus. Ed

UPDATE: This just in from Will' Shakespeare...

I'faith, i know not what these men from foreign parts know about a railway of Puck like speed cutting through this realm of kings.

But as I say in my play Hamlet "for tis the sport to have the gricer Lord hoist by his own petard".

And the same goes for dead bards. Ed

UPDATE: This from Alfred Lord Tennyson...

Might I perchance inject a note of practicality into this discussion and ask what the Whig view is on noise issuing forth from this new rail way?

It was indeed I who conjured the phrase "The ringing grooves of change" and at the promised speed of 400 of those radical kilometres in the hour the ringing would indeed be loud.

UPDATE This from Mr Walt Whitman...

Might I...(Absolutely not. Literary Ed)

No more dead poets, bards and management gurus - please! Ed.

HS2 - Old fart breaks wind

According to Professional Engineering Magazine...

Tory heavyweight Lord Heseltine has cast doubt on the railway industry’s ability to come up with the best route for a new high speed network in the UK.

Not guilty My Lord.

This one is entirely down to the Civil Serpents - in particular HS2 Chairman and former Permanent Secretary, Sir David Rowlands.

HS2 - Is Rowlands in control?

Telegrammed by Sir Humphrey Beeching
Have we another Mottram Moment in the making?

A furious email has been issued by HS2 containing a statement from Sir David Rowlands...

HS2's response to RAIL Magazine

“The insinuation that Scotland would not be included in our proposals for a high-speed rail network is frankly ludicrous. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are on our list of primary destinations and will definitely feature in all of our proposed network options.

“In fact, on the day RAIL Magazine published its factually inaccurate article, I was in Scotland meeting with the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson to discuss, among other things, the work Scotland is doing to ensure a future high-speed link is integrated with its transport planning strategies."

Well that clears that up then.

Or does it?

Perhaps Sir David would be better directing his ire closer to home.

After all, RAIL was merely reporting non-attributable briefings given to several trade titles by Rowlands' own staff...

UPDATE: This just in from RAIL's Managing Editor. Nigel Harris...

RE The Scottish Question

Eye watchers will be interested to know that I am already in correspondence with my good friend Sir David's office regarding RAIL's HS2 report, in the last issue, by Business Editor Phil Haigh.

RAIL stands 100% behind Phil's entirely accurate, objective, prompt, thoroughly professional news story and I shall be inviting Sir David to withdraw his allegation of inaccuracy forthwith.

I'll be dealing with this in the next RAIL - including, maybe, further revelations from Phil's carefully noted, on-the-record briefing, which contained the controversial 'not for Scotland' opinions.

Wild horses wouldn't drag the name of the highly-placed source from our lips, but if HS2 thinks the Scottish comments were embarrassing, then other remarks lying (currently) unpublished in the detailed transcript I asked Phil to produce, from his contemporaneous notes, may indeed prompt the 'Mottram Moment' you so wittily allude to.

Bottom line: Phil's story is 100% accurate. Fact.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Tut, you wait years for a Scotland scandal, and then two turn up at once!

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic ( in serious mode for once)...

Several of us in the railway press have had the same story, with the same quotes from HS2L sources.

I didn't follow Phil into print for the simple reason that I have decided to write about HS rail only when there is something in print with hard numbers to crunch - such as the NR report.

Informed Sources has run for over a quarter of a century because the eponymous sources know I will never let them down.

But trust is bi-directional and I work on the basis that anyone is allowed to mislead me once.

Had I followed Phil with an item and then had a denial sent not to me or my editor in the first instance but to all the railway press I would wonder whether it represented a breach of trust.

Adonis and Biggles mug Mail

Even the Mail is frothing at the mouth over HS2.

This from highly respected transport correspondent Ray Massay...

Plans for a new high speed train service between London and the North - with double-decker trains travelling at 225 mph - are set to get a boost from the Government and the Conservative opposition.

Double decker trains! Where did those suddenly emerge from?

Transport Minister Lord Adonis will voice Government support for the idea of the new line to link the capital to the North of England and Scotland when he speaks tomorrow at a conference promoting the scheme.

Hold on... voice Government support... that's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Sir David, a former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, said that the line would allow tens of thousands of homes for long-distance commuters to be built between London and Birmingham.

Ah ha! Hypothocation floated as a means of funding the project as the Government won't.

On the vexed issue of financing the scheme in the depths of a recession, Sir David said: 'It’s a huge challenge but I believe it will eventually happen because the railway is full.'

Still no Government commitment to fund and not even an indication when the line may open, but there's no rush because it will "eventually happen".

No commitments, no numbers, not even a firm route!

So it's pure spin!

Ray - shame on you for swallowing this tosh.

Biggles flies undone

So Sir David "Biggles" Rowland has been waving the flag for HS2.

Alas, in The Times today he promises oodles of jam, all of it delivered tomorrow.

No matter.

The article does reveal the proposed location of the High Speed Two London terminus:

The Times records:

Passengers may, however, have to travel to the suburbs of London to catch the trains because the terminus could be built up to five miles from the centre to reduce the cost of the line.

A site near Wormwood Scrubs in West London is being considered as a giant rail hub where passengers would switch from the high-speed line to Crossrail, the mainline railway being built under Central London to link tracks to the East and West.

It could have been worse.

Apparently Sir 'Biggles' initially suggested that the London terminus should be built in Manchester and served by air.

HS2 Endorsed - licence revoked?

So how many endorsements does this need before it takes effect?

This from DafT...

Plans for one of the country's most crucial transport projects to date, High Speed 2, were officially endorsed by the Department for Transport today (Tuesday 10 March).

Talk is cheap.

Repentant sinner?

The Sunday Times has further details on the company DafT has set up to progress HS2.

The business section names top civil servants Bob Linnard and Timothy Wellburn as directors.

But what's this?

No mention of who the Chairman is!

With DafT having read Eye's take on that particular appointment it's perhaps no surprise that they may now wish to play it down!

Herod opens kindergarten

Dear God!

This from Transit...

The DfT’s former permanent secretary Sir David Rowlands is to chair a new company to take forward plans for a high-speed rail line from London to Scotland.

For pity's sake is there no one else available?

UPDATE: Captain Deltic asks...

'Where is Sir David Serpell when we need him?'