Posts Tagged ‘London’



Fight for high-speed rail, says Hammond

Posted Tuesday March 8 2011 by in News Articles - Miscellaneous

Transport secretary Philip Hammond has told Insider that the economic case for the planned £32bn high-speed rail line from London to the West Midlands is compelling, but business leaders and local authorities must fight to ensure it goes ahead.

“High-speed rail has the potential to shrink the UK and bring our great northern cities closer to our international gateways to the world in a way nothing has done since the building of the motorway network in the 1960s,” he said.

“It’ll tackle the north/south divide more effectively than half a century of regional policy has succeeded in doing.”

(more)

Post Link: http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/midlands/48554-fight-high-speed-rail-says-hammond/

Rail link will spread wealth, says PM

Posted Monday December 20 2010 by in Uncategorized

A new high-speed rail network between Birmingham and London will help to alleviate the economic north-south divide, the Prime Minister has said.

David Cameron said the £30 billion train line linking Birmingham to London would spread the economic wealth concentrated in the South East.

During Prime Minister’s question time, he told the Commons: “For 50 years we have been trying to deal with the north-south divide, we have been trying to have a more effective regional policy.

“I do believe that high-speed rail has got a really effective role to play in bringing our country closer together and spreading economic benefit throughout all of our country.”

(more)

Post Link: http://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpress.co.uk/news/rail_link_will_spread_wealth_says_pm_1_2859653

Siemens to Start Making High-Speed Trains in Russia

Posted Friday November 19 2010 by in Uncategorized

Bloomberg

Siemens AG, Germany’s largest engineering company, plans to start producing high-speed trains in Russia in 2015, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to upgrade the country’s infrastructure and strengthen the economy.

Siemens, together with billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky’s Sinara Group and a unit of state-owned OAO Russian Railways, will begin production of trains based on Siemens’s regional Desiro model, which are already used in Hungary and by London’s Heathrow Express service.

Russia will spend 2 trillion rubles ($64 billion) “in the long term,” building a high-speed rail network across the country, Valentin Gapanovich, a senior vice president of the Russian rail monopoly, told reporters today.

“We need to create a strong program to develop a high- speed rail network in Russia,” Putin told Siemens Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher during a meeting in Verkhnyaya Pyshma in the Sverdlovsk region. “It’s our joint work for years to come.”

The venture will make 160 wagons a year for the first two years and increase that to 240 in 2017, according to the companies.

Pumpyansky said he expects revenue from the venture to be on par with sales at OAO TMK, his pipemaking company, by 2017.

TMK forecast last month that sales will rise to $5.5 billion this year after they slumped to $3.46 billion last year.

Post Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-18/siemens-to-start-making-high-speed-trains-in-russia.html

Study: High-Speed Rail Can Boost Economy, Reduce Traffic

Posted Tuesday November 16 2010 by in Uncategorized

ConsumerAffairs.com

Drawing lessons from other countries, a new study from U.S. PIRG contends that high-speed rail can boost the U.S. economy, save energy, curb pollution and provide a popular alternative to congested roads and airports.

The report, “A Track Record of Success: High-Speed Rail Around the World and Its Promise for America,†details a number of examples from around the world that make a variety of cases for high-speed rail.

Benefits listed

Some of the benefits, according to the study, include:

  • Jobs: About 8,000 people were involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between the tunnel and London.
  • Development opportunities near stations: The amount of office space in the area around the rail station in city of Lyon, France has increased by 43 percent.
  • Economic growth: In Germany, the counties surrounding the towns of Limburg and Montabauer experienced a 2.7 percent increase in their gross domestic product as a result of the increased access to markets provided by the Frankfurt-Cologne high-speed rail line.
  • Reduced road congestion: High-speed rail service between Madrid and Seville reduced the share of car travel between the two cities from 60 percent to 34 percent.
  • Reduced oil dependence: A typical Monday morning business trip between London and Paris via high-speed rail uses approximately a third less energy as a car or plane trip.

Growing demand

Over the last two years, the federal government has distributed $10.4 billion in grants to construct or plan high-speed rail, including incremental measures that increase the speed and reliability of existing passenger rail.

In these two rounds, 37 states and the District of Columbia have applied to the Federal Railroad Administration to support 341 project applications. Those requests totaled over $65 billion – about six times the amount made available by Congress.

“Now that the elections are behind us, it’s time to get serious about high-speed rail. There is no such thing as a Republican or a Democratic rail track,” said U.S. PIRG transportation associate Dan Smith, “Leaders from both parties should support long-term investment in high-speed rail for the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life benefits.”

In a statement about U.S. PIRG’s report, Glen Bottoms of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation agrees: “This report reinforces our view that building a high-speed rail network is a prudent and cost effective use of America’s resources over the long-term.”

Post Link: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/11/study-high-speed-rail-can-boost-economy-reduce-traffic.html

Report: High-speed rail could help conserve energy, reduce congestion

Posted Monday November 15 2010 by in Uncategorized

Investing in high-speed rail in the U.S. could help conserve energy and relieve traffic congestion as travelers switch from cars and short inter-city flights to more efficient trains, according to a new report released Wednesday from the Washington Public Interest Research Group.

The report, titled “A Track Record of Success: High-Speed Rail Around the World and Its Promise for America,” points to examples in Europe and Japan, where high-speed rail networks already exist and whisk travelers between cities such as London and Paris in a few hours.

“In the United States, similar shifts would ease congestion in the skies and offer alternatives to congested highways, reducing the need for expensive new investments in highways and airports,” the report says. “Short-haul plane trips are the least efficient in terms of time and fuel, and replacing those trips allows air travel to be more efficient and focused on long-haul trips.”

The report also points to Amtrak Acela Express service in the northeastern U.S., which is slow by international standards, but still accounts for 65 percent of the air/rail market on trips between New York and Washington, D.C., and 52 percent of the air/rail market on trips between Boston and New York, according to the report.

The Obama administration awarded $8 billion in stimulus money this year to enhance the nation’s rail networks. Washington state received $640 million to make track improvements and increase the number of trains between Seattle and Portland. It won’t mean bullet trains in the Northwest anytime soon, but will lead to improvements in the reliability and performance of Amtrak Cascades, meaning faster trips.

According to the report, high-speed rail could serve as a back-up or alternative to short flights between cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. The report cites research by the Brookings Institution showing flights of 500 miles or fewer accounted for almost half of all flights in the U.S. and 30 percent of all passengers in the 12-month.

“Trips of 155 miles consume approximately 40 percent more energy per seat-mile than trips of more than 625 miles in the same aircraft,” according to the report. It’s a distance that is increasingly served by high-speed rail in other countries.

Post Link: http://blog.seattlepi.com/transportation/archives/228047.asp

Canadian investors swoop to snap up High Speed 1 rail line

Posted Monday November 8 2010 by in Uncategorized

Daily Mail

Just a day after BHP Billiton was rebuffed by the Canadian authorities in its attempt to snap up Potash Corporation, two heavyweight Canadian investors have bought Britain’s only high speed rail line for £2.1bn.

Ontario Teachers’ pension plan and Borealis, the infrastructure investment arm of Ontario Municipal employees Retirement System, beat rivals including Eurotunnel, Morgan Stanley and Allianz for the 30-year concession for the High Speed 1 line linking London’s St Pancras station to the Channel Tunnel.

Eurostar trains St Pancras InternationalLet the train take the strain: Travellers disembark from Eurostars at St Pancras

 

‘It is an enormous amount of money, a big vote of confidence in UK plc and a big vote of market confidence in the future of UK high-speed rail,’ British Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said.

The Government is conducting a thorough audit of state assets with a view to selling off stakes in the likes of the Tote, Dartford Crossing and National Air Traffic Services (NATS).

The £2.1bn sale of the 30-year concession to operate HS1 was better than the expected £1.5bn to £2bn range. it will help to pay down the country’s £150bn of debts

Post Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1327077/Canadians-investors-buy-High-Speed-1.html

Call for high speed rail link

Posted Friday October 15 2010 by in Uncategorized

Swindon Advertiser

SWINDON’S top politicians yesterday called on the Government to electrify the Great Western rail line and slash journey times to London.

Rod Bluh, leader of Swindon Borough Council, launched a campaign in Parliament in support of the electrification of the Great Western main line, alongside Swindon’s MPs Conservative Robert Buckland and Justin Tomlinson.

They say the Tory-Lib Dem coalition must honour the previous Labour government’s plans, announced last year, to electrify the line between Swansea and London Paddington, installing overhead electric pylons and replacing existing diesel- powered trains with electrically-powered high speed locomotives.

Doing so would reduce existing travel times between Swindon and London by about 20 minutes – enabling the journey to be completed in 40 to 45 minutes, rather than an hour.

As well as making life easier for commuters, supporters say the £1.1bn scheme would bring new investment into the town as companies and public sector organisations considering relocating are more likely to pick places with quicker transport links to London.

The electrification scheme is currently being considered as part of a value-for-money review of UK rail projects, which will feed into the Government’s comprehensive spending review next week.

Coun Bluh, attending the campaign launch with the leaders of Cardiff and Bristol councils, argued the north of England often did better out of Government funding settlements than than the south, and said it was time Swindon got its fair share.

He said: “This is the part of the UK that is usually overlooked.

“The north always gets attention but Swindon is a powerhouse for the economy, and Bristol and Cardiff share the M4 and the railway. This project is desperately important for the whole region.”

Mr Buckland, MP for South Swindon, said: “Times are tough with capital public spending but it’s up to us to lobby Government and keep the project on the road. I will keep banging on the Government’s door until I’m blue in the face.”

Mr Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, said: “It is a real priority to work together to deliver this much needed improvement and it will drive our future economic success.”

Post Link: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/8450328.Call_for_high_speed_rail_link/

 
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