OVERVIEW

High Speed Rail - Rebalancing the UK economy

Transport Times is collaborating with Siemens and Virgin Trains to produce fringe events at the Labour and Conservative party conferences which will focus on rail. Both of these fringe events are free of charge and are located outside the secure zone so attendees will not require a pass to attend. Refreshments will be provided at each of the fringe events.


Labour

Monday 28th September 2015

13:00-14:00 Holiday Inn, Kings Road 137, Brighton BN1 2JF

Room: Ashdown 2

Speakers:

Lilian Greenwood MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport (invited)

Prof David Begg, Chief Executive, Transport Times (Chair)

Steve Scrimshaw, Managing Director, Rail Systems, Siemens

Richard Scott, Executive Director for Corporate, Virgin Trains


Conservative

Monday 5th October 2015

13:00-14:00 Radisson Blu Edwardian, Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5GP

Room: Dickens/Thackeray

Speakers:

Claire Perry, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Department for Transport 

Prof David Begg, Chief Executive, Transport Times (chair)

Steve Scrimshaw, Managing Director, Rail Systems, Siemens

Richard Scott, Executive Director for Corporate, Virgin Trains


The Government has given the green light to plans for an east-west HS3 rail link in the north of England which will further increase the benefits of HS2. It will now work with the North's cities through Transport for the North to manage the Northern and TransPennine franchises and implement the Rail North 20-year strategy to improve connectivity, coherence, capacity and cost-effectiveness.

A joint strategy document from the Government and Transport for the North, published alongside March's Budget, set out plans for east-west links which would radically reduce journey times between northern cities. The plans included options based on new routes as well as upgrades to existing ones. Further work is now under way as part of a £12.5m programme to examine in more detail the trade-offs between the relative costs and savings in journey time, and to identify options for economies from carrying out the upgrades together which could reduce the cost overall.

And following the election, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that the Government will introduce a new hybrid bill in this parliament to bring forward the construction of HS2 to Crewe so that the benefits of high speed rail will reach the North sooner.

Work is already under way to provide a fully electrified route between Manchester, Leeds and York by December 2018, linking up with the electrified lines at Leeds and York. The replacement of rolling stock, capitalising on opportunities for 'cascading' trains following the introduction of new stock on the Thameslink programme and elsewhere is also a key concern.

Our Fringes will examine the short term, medium term and long term measures that the Government has proposed to improve rail in the north.