My Lords, I very much welcome the Statement and, more importantly, the commitment to go ahead with the project. Does the Minister agree that if we are going to spend this amount of public money in these difficult times, it is very important that the public should have a general sense that this is a good thing; and that rather than the argument being entirely hijacked by questions of shaving minutes off journey times between London and Birmingham, we need to keep referring to the line in the context of a very important scheme to link the whole country together and then on to Europe? I am sure the Minister would agree that had Brunel started the Great Western line by saying that he was building the Maidenhead link, nobody would have been very inspired.
I'll be honest, we're a long way from HS2 here in Suffolk, although we really wouldn't mind if someone spent some money on the East Anglian Main Line, but Ros raised an important point here, as you might expect from a former member of the Committee for Integrated Transport.
This line will increase capacity, as the existing West Coast Main Line will have additional slots available for long distance commuters from Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, and for freight. All the indicators are that passenger volumes will continue to increase, and yes, you could enhance the West Coast Main Line again, but the cost would be huge, and the disruption worse.
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