High speed trains are a huge benefit to our county

The success of Kent’s high speed rail network demonstrates the role HS2 has to play in the country’s economic recovery after coronavirus, according to MP Damian Green. Here he tells how he has seen the positive impact of the service at first hand in his A

When you emerge from Ashford station, you are greeted by a variety of new buildings and institutions.

They range from a brewery/ restaurant to a multi-story office block, a cinema complex and a Further Education College. What links them is that they were only built because Ashford has high speed rail.

During the ongoing lockdown, some have questioned whether major projects such as HS2 should go ahead. But as the country looks to its post Covid-19 recovery, it seems to me that Ashford, and Kent more broadly, provide a blueprint for the transformative impact high speed rail could have at a national level.

In a new report published today (Thursday), High Speed Rail: London and South East Voices brings together representatives from politics, business and industry to speak to the benefits of high speed rail in our region.

In my own contribution, I make the case that the arrival of the domestic and international high speed services has undoubtedly been the most significant factor in making my constituency of Ashford attractive to inward investment for half a century. Being 38 minutes from central London, as well as two and a half hours from the centre of Paris and Brussels makes the town the ideal place to set up a new business or expand an existing one. The extra demand created by those who work in these new businesses means that the leisure facilities offered in the town are incomparably better than they were ten years ago. Of course it is not only my constituents who benefit from HS1. Every year the national economy benefits to the tune of £427 million from the extra activity created by the service. Most of this comes from the shorter journey times, which are equally welcome in personal terms by the 15 million domestic and 11 million international passengers carried each year.

One of the most ridiculous arguments used against high speed rail in general is that “It’s only cutting 20 minutes or half an hour off the journey, so why spend all this money?” If

Damian Green says there are many economic and environmental benefits from Kent’s high speed train service