To draw attention to the paradox around the official opening today of the £800m refurbishment of St Pancras station in London is not to rain on what is a hugely significant parade for the permanent way. For a country, Britain, that led the way in the development of the railways, there is something depressing about the St Pancras upgrade, centrepiece in a 10-year, £5.8bn project, being the first rail undertaking on this scale in some 100 years. When St Pancras International is fully operational later this month, Britain (or London and the south-east) will finally and belatedly join the European high-speed rail club, with trains reaching the Channel Tunnel barely half an hour after leaving the station.
Where the continent led, Britain has followed with a commitment not just to one but to two massive rail projects (to switch transport metaphor, this is reminiscent of waiting for a bus only for two to come along, only in a much longer timeframe). After High Speed 1 (HS1, the St Pancras development) will come the £16bn Crossrail scheme to build a railway link through the centre of London. The project was approved by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, last month and work is expected to begin in 2010.
Crossrail will be a boost to the economy, as HS1 has been. Travelling in London and the south-east will be a greener, faster and smoother experience, cutting journey times to European capital cities. What of the impact on the rest of Britain? The feature on page 15 of The Herald today explains how there will be a knock-on effect for Scots travelling to Europe by train, but the gain will come from shorter journey times from London via HS1. While several billion pounds are being invested in upgrading the West Coast Main Line between Scotland and England, and journey times on the East Coast Line have improved, London will remain the hub for truly 21st-century high-speed train travel to Europe.
HS1 and Crossrail demonstrate that, where there is a will, there can be a funding way. An imaginative approach can reap dividends that include fewer transport emissions. Chris Green of the Railway Forum sees HS1 as a scene- setter for a brighter future of more long-distance transport capacity taking to the tracks, spreading wealth and bringing the north and south closer together.
It is not just faster rail links enabling the free flow of freight and passenger journeys between Scotland and England that are required. Scotland has its own Crossrail proposal, linking rail networks north and south of Glasgow with the rest of the country, ready to begin but parked in a siding. Compared with HS1 and the bigger Crossrail, the bill would be minimal but the impact on Scotland's transport links would be positive. Why won't we match London's boldness and ambition, at a fraction of the cost?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article