Atisreal - General Other - UK
Date: 07 Aug 2008
A leading railway consultant has warned that Network Rail's plans for a high-speed line to London to Bristol may be prohibitively expensive to deliver because of the Great Western line's historic heritage.
Bristol-based Atisreal director Chris Selway was responding to the announcement that Network Rail was to launch a study looking at the possibility of building five new high-speed lines along some of the UK's busiest passenger routes.
In what would amount to the largest construction of track since the 19th Century the rail infrastructure company said it would be looking at five routes - Chiltern, East Coast, West Coast, Great Western and Midland Main Line.
Selway who has more than 20 years' experience of dealing with railway property said: "There is no doubt that Bristol and the South West would receive a massive economic boost if journey times from Bristol to London could be slashed to 40 minutes as reported. But let's take a reality check.
"If we are talking about dualling or even electrification of the existing Great Western route there are huge potential problems because much of the existing railway infrastructure tunnels, stations etc. is listed. This is because the Great Western Railway was also known as Brunel's Billiard Table because it was designed by Britain's most famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
"Also in urban areas like Bath the land use is so intensive that compulsory purchase orders would be unrealistically expensive. This would mean that city centres would have to be bypassed".
He also warned that routes linking London and the Midlands to the North would have a higher economic priority because of the greater passenger volumes and greater densities of population in these regions. He added these routes would be more important in changing commuter and business user habits and would compete more with airlines.
However he cautioned: "If the railways are to fully compete with airlines which would obviously have positive environmental benefits, the Government will have to face up to paying the railways massive subsidies, otherwise passengers would be priced off the railways."
Despite pouring cold water on the euphoria that has greeted Network Rail's announcement for a high-speed line linking Bristol to London he said that there was some better news for travellers in the South West, plagued by congestion and unreliability.
"Network Rail's well publicized projects now underway to relieve congestion at Reading and Swindon, in particular its plans for additional track and platforms, will increase the capacity of trains. This should bring about greater timetable improvements and reliability in a much shorter timeframe and much more cost effectively."
Selway's colleague at Atisreal agency director Peter White added: "Any improvements in travel time between Bristol and London would of course give the region a boost. However we are acting for a number of large corporate occupiers that are considering relocations to Bristol and they do not seem to be put off by current travel times. Bristol boasts a well educated flexible labour market, cost efficient office space and quality of life advantages that appear to be more important factors to potential occupiers."
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