HS2 will see Welsh and Cornish passengers face ‘more disrupted journeys’ – MP

Welsh and Cornish travellers could face “slower and more disruptive journeys” into London, MPs have heard.

Jayne Kirkham, the Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth in Cornwall, shared in the Commons her fears about the scale of disruption caused by HS2 Old Oak Common station works.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh vowed on Thursday to make “efforts” to ease the potential impact on rail passengers between London Paddington and destinations such as Bristol, Cardiff and Plymouth.

Review

Conservative shadow transport secretary Helen Whately pointed to projects which the Labour Government has put on hold, pending a “thorough review”, as a result of a reported £22 billion financial black hole.

She called on the Government to drum up “confidence” for “businesses looking to invest, to the contractors waiting to get started and, crucially, to the communities who so badly need these upgrades”.

Ms Kirkham told MPs: “Our railway in the South West is too slow, too fragile and too expensive.

“Does the Transport Secretary agree with me and colleagues in Cornwall, the South West and Wales, that this new HS2 station will mean slower and more disruptive journeys?”

Ms Haigh replied: “Efforts will be made to minimise the impact on passengers, including trains terminating at either Ealing Broadway or Reading, but we will of course work with her to monitor and minimise disruption for her residents.

“Nowhere is the Tory legacy of transport failure more obvious than in the legacy we have been left on HS2. Costs allowed to run completely out of control, communities ignored, and misery for passengers baked into the plans.

“My department is working with the rail industry to minimise disruption during the construction of Old Oak Common station, including for a £30 million investment in mitigations that will allow services to continue to operate during the disruption.”

Work under way

Work is under way at the 14-platform Old Oak Common station, between Paddington and Reading on the Elizabeth Line, and Euston and Birmingham on the under-construction HS2 route.

Great Western Railway has announced some of its Paddington-bound trains will instead arrive into Euston on Sunday November 17 and between Friday December 27 and Sunday December 29 as a result of works, while others will terminate early at Reading or Ealing Broadway.

Conservative former prime minister Rishi Sunak announced last year HS2 in inner London would rely on private investment, in a bid to save £6.5 billion of taxpayers’ money, but Ms Haigh told Times Radio on Tuesday: “It certainly would never have made sense to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham.”

Ms Whately urged the Transport Secretary to commit to alterative projects announced by the previous Conservative government, because “growth requires investment and investment requires confidence”.

The shadow transport secretary said: “(Ms Haigh) didn’t wait for the Budget to give unions a massive payrise, or to re-announce our plan to get HS2 to Euston, or to signal billions of pounds for a new HS2-light (between Birmingham and Manchester).

“So if she can make those decisions before the Budget, surely she can confirm that every penny of investment that we have committed to transport through Network North will continue to be invested in our country’s transport infrastructure?”

Ms Haigh said in her reply: “Her government presided over billions of pounds of waste and failure in the delivery of infrastructure and has cost our economy hundreds of billions of pounds.”

Funding

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Paul Kohler asked the Cabinet minister about “funding for the work necessary at Euston station has now been secured, and what she’s doing to reverse the Tories’ equally absurd decision to end the northern leg at Birmingham”.

Ms Haigh promised an announcement on HS2’s cost controls “shortly” and said: “Nowhere is the legacy of the previous government more pertinent than the mess that they left HS2 on.

“Even under their disgraced plans, Euston was always going to be part of the position on HS2.”

On a possible future direct train between Cleethorpes and London, Conservative Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh vowed to “lie down on the line and stop it that way” if it did not stop at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire.

Transport minister Lilian Greenwood said she hoped Sir Edward “will not put himself in such danger”.

Ms Greenwood added her department is “working with industry” on “timetabling, financial, operational and infrastructure issues that would need to be resolved before a service between Cleethorpes and London via Market Rasen could be introduced”.