New high-speed rail link will not charge premium on tickets
Author: David Millward, the Telegraph |
Passengers will not have to pay premium ticket prices to use the high speed rail network as the Government promised the service will available to everyone.
In a surprise move ministers have ruled out pushing up fares on the line, in contrast to the existing Javelin services from Kent to St Pancras where prices can be up to 35 per cent higher than conventional services.
Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, said the fare structure would be the same as the rest of the network with higher fares being charged during the rush hour.
The decision not to impose premium fares is seen as an attempt to deflect criticism that the high speed network will become a “rich man’s toy” with only the better off able to afford eye-watering fares.
Even with normal ticket pricing the line to Leeds is expected to be only 50 per cent while an average of 45 per cent of seats to Manchester are expected to be taken, according to projections by HS2 ltd, the company steering through the £33 billion project.
Imposing a premium, it is feared, could have led to the project being dubbed an expensive white elephant with near empty 225 mph trains hurtling through the countryside.
As previously disclosed by The Daily Telegraph, the extended network will slash the time taken to travel between major provincial cities even though some of the stations – such as those serving Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham and Derby – will be outside the metropolitan centres.
The introduction of 225 mph trains will mean a trip from Leeds to Sheffield falling from 41 minutes to 17, while a journey to Nottingham will take only 29 minutes compared with the current 115.
A trip from Birmingham to Manchester will take 49 minutes, rather than the 88, while passengers will spend only 127 minutes getting to Newcastle – compared with the current 194, although the journey north of Leeds will be on conventional rather than high speed track.
The announcement of the extended route was given a muted welcome with business leaders demanding investment in other projects.
“We cannot sit on our hands when the West Coast Main Line is set to reach full capacity by the 2020s and freight will be squeezed,” said John Cridland, the CBI’s Director-General.
“Extending HS2 to the North is the project’s big prize. It will boost the economic potential of some of our biggest cities, driving growth and creating jobs across the country. This is the same bold, long-term thinking that helped the Victorians build our original network.
“HS2 cannot be built in isolation so we need sustained, additional capital investment in existing road and rail networks to meet increased demand. Ministers must work hard to secure real consensus on the route, to avoid the project being hit by years of delays.”
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT rail union, described the investment as belated after decades of inertia.
“We are miles behind the rest of Europe when it comes to High Speed and electrification because our railways have been fragmented and run for private profit rather than as a public service for the past twenty years. We have been left playing catch up and there is no excuse for further delays.”