THEY SAID:
“I
AM proud to present the Integrated Rail Plan. The biggest ever Government investment in our rail network, in redressing decades of underspending in the Midlands and North, and in levelling up our country.
“Too often, the debate on levelling-up has been about schemes. Instead, we need to focus on outcomes – on delivering the greatest economic and transport benefits for more people, does.” more quickly. That is what this Integrated Rail Plan Boris Johnson, Prime Minister
“RAILWAYS are not just about getting people from A to B. Planned properly, they can transform the prospects of the places they serve, helping businesses to grow, generating new jobs and opportunities, and improving the lives of people who live and work there. An investment in rail is an investment in more communities.” prosperous Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary
“THE railway industry will welcome the end of the uncertainty surrounding the Integrated Rail Plan, now it’s been published. Many of them have been preparing over the last few years to deliver the projects contained within it, and whether individual schemes have been scrapped, amended or given the green light, thinking.” at least we all now know the Government’s Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association
“IF
TODAY’S announcements had come from a standing start, the industry would doubtless have been pleased with the investment. But the reality is they represent a reduction in the previous plans for both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail. HS2 is the single most important infrastructure project in the UK for decades.
Its benefits to the country are enormous and will be felt by
come.” generations to High Speed Rail Group
“THE
IRP doesn’t join up the dots. It speaks of infrastructure rather than services, and so misses the importance of the more detailed points that determine whether rail services are attractive to customers. Without these important connections at either end of the east-west cross-Midland part of ‘HS2 East’, the business case for taking it forward will be weak, and the full spread of benefits it unrealised.” could bring will be Greengauge 21
“DEFERMENT of the Eastern leg of HS2 and NPR east of the Pennines, if unavoidable, is acceptable but cancellation is not. It is crucial that these options are preserved for the future, when a fully decarbonised transport system with sufficient capacity for all essential.” main traffic flows will be The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport