Economic Affairs Committee
Rethinking High Speed 2
6th Report of Session 2017-19 - published 16 May 2019 - HL Paper 359
Summary
Summary of conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Priorities for rail investment
Capacity problems on the rail network
Overcrowding on commuter services
Table 1: Percentage of passengers standing in the peak hours on
a typical autumn weekday by city in 2017 (fast long distance services are highlighted in bold)
High Speed 2 and overcrowding relief
Northern Powerhouse Rail and overcrowding relief
Box 1: Summary of the main improvements under Northern Powerhouse Rail
Improving rail connections for northern cities
Figure 1: Northern Powerhouse Rail Programme (including junctions with High Speed 2)
Northern Powerhouse Rail
Table 2: Current service frequency and journey times between selected northern cities and expected improvements following Northern Powerhouse Rail
High Speed 2
Table 3: Current journey times between London Euston and northern cities and expected improvements following High Speed 2
Table 4: Distribution of the transport user benefits of
High Speed 2 project by region, according to where a
long-distance trip starts and finishes (figures are proportions from HS2 Ltd’s modelling for 2037)
Prioritisation of rail infrastructure projects
Table 5: National Infrastructure Assessment and fiscal remit for High Speed 2, Crossrail 2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail
Dependency of Northern Powerhouse Rail on High Speed 2
Chapter 3: Costs and appraisal of High Speed 2
Planned cost of High Speed 2
Table 6: Breakdown of the £55.7 billion HS2 funding envelope (2015 prices)
Estimates the project will overspend
Project appraisal of High Speed 2
Latest cost-benefit analysis
Table 7: Estimate benefits, revenues and costs of the full High Speed 2 network (2015 prices)
Appropriateness of cost-benefit analysis for assessing large infrastructure projects
Value of travel time savings
Table 8: Comparison of values allocated to travel time savings
for business (by journey distance), commuter and leisure passengers (£ per hour, 2010/11 prices)
Table 9: Number of surveys carried out for rail passengers travelling more than 100 miles, stated preference survey versus National Travel Survey
Box 2: Activities undertaken by business travellers during rail journeys
Table 10: Activities undertaken by business travellers during trip (average minutes spent on each activity)
Non-work travel time savings
Audit of latest research
Demand forecasts
Table 11: Weekday journey purpose proportions on main
High Speed 2 routes used in modelling, August 2012 economic case versus October 2013 economic case (base year 2010)
Table 12: Weekday long distance rail journeys by route and purpose, National Travel Survey data, 2002 to 2017 average
Table 13: Weekday long-distance rail trips (over 50 miles) by
journey purpose, National Travel Survey data for 2003–2007, 2008–2012 and 2013–2017
Chapter 4: Reducing the cost of High Speed 2
Lower speed
Questioning of the design speed
Cost savings from reduced speed on Phase 1
Table 14: Comparison of journey times between London and Birmingham, and London and Manchester, on High Speed 2 under different maximum speed designs
Cost savings from reduced speed on Phase 2
Table 15: Comparison of costs and journey times of Phase 2b and best alternative as assessed by Atkins
London terminus at Old Oak Common
Figure 2: Integration of HS2 with the Elizabeth Line
Onward journey times from Old Oak Common
Table 16: Onward journey times to selected destinations from Old Oak Common via the Elizabeth Line and High Speed 2
Old Oak Common as London terminus for full High Speed 2 network
Old Oak Common as London terminus for Phase 1 and Phase 2a
Appendix 1: List of Members and declarations of interest
Appendix 2: List of witnesses
Evidence is published online at https://www.parliament.uk/hleconomicaffairs/publications and available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (020 7219 3074).
Q in footnotes refers to a question in oral evidence.
