Government committed to investment in transport

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The biggest rail investment programme since Victorian times demonstrates the government's commitment to investing in transport as a means of economic growth, the minister for transport has said.

Norman Baker was speaking at the launch of the Transport and Infrastructure Dialogue's final report, 'Connecting Britain, looking at the challenges, and possible solutions to issues facing the transport industry in the UK'.

Not wanting to jump the gun on the secretary of state's decision on High Speed 2, which will be announced to Parliament in the not-too-distant future, Baker spoke on behalf of the Liberal Democrats.

Although he recognised the economic benefits of High Speed 2 in getting people from A to B quicker, he said the need for investment was largely about capacity.

"We have to have more capacity North to South," Baker said.

Despite an investment of £8.8bn in the West Coast mainline by the previous government, Baker said the line is already "finite" in terms of what it can hold.

He stressed that investing further in either the West or East Coast mainline would, in his view, be more expensive and disruptive than investing in High Speed 2.

Acknowledging the government's localism agenda, Baker said that High Speed 2 would move the economic centre of the country north a bit and allow more power to be given back to our key cities.

Stephen Burgin, country president and head of power at Alstom UK and a member of the Transport and Infrastructure Dialogue, enthused about the importance of making north-south links as "smooth and efficient as possible".

The importance of connectivity was reiterated by Dialogue partner Kathryn James, managing director of the NEC Group.

"At the NEC Group our last 35 years of success have been in no small part brought about by our great connectivity, which allows us to welcome millions of people to four national venues within the UK," she said.

The report makes four recommendations: to raise the profile of the transport sector, to better communicate the benefits of HS2, more support for Local Enterprise Partnerships, and finally a recommendation of support for new technologies.

Responding to the call to better communicate the benefits of High Speed 2, Baker said there would be an opportunity to do this, depending on the decision made by the secretary of state.

He also noted the importance of ensuring cross-party support for High Speed 2, as it is a project that will span several parliaments.

Pointing to the presence of the shadow minister for transport, John Woodcock, Baker said he hoped Labour's current review into High Speed 2 would reaffirm the support Andrew Adonis originally secured for the scheme.

John Morris, head of government and industry affairs at Birmingham Airport reiterated the importance of HS2, but also urged the government of the need to make better use of existing transport infrastructure.

In regard to the aviation review he spoke of the need to utilise extra capacity at existing airports, and make sure that the whole country benefits from it.

Martin Dean, managing director of bus development at Go-Ahead, commended the report for highlighting the role that the transport industry has in ensuring everybody understands how important transport is for economic growth.

Alex Burrows, head of strategy at Centro, said it was evidence like that presented in the report "which helps make such a critical case to government".