Mayor Boris’s U-turn on North’s high-speed rail link under fire

London Mayor Boris Johnson has been criticised for performing a “U-turn” over his support for a high-speed rail link to the Midlands and the North after he branded plans for the route in the capital as “perverse” and “inadequate”.

The Campaign for High Speed Rail said the Mayor’s stance displayed a bias against the North and was bad for business.

Mr Johnson is calling for the whole stretch of the proposed line which falls within London to be routed through tunnels, which would add massively to the £30 billion estimated cost of the new link to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.

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And he said the project would double the number of passengers arriving at Euston station each morning, and he would not back it without a Government commitment to increase London Underground capacity to carry them on to their destination.

The Mayor also raised concerns that a planned station for the HS2 project at Old Oak Common in north-west London will not be adequately connected up with the capital’s existing transport infrastructure.

Mr Johnson’s comments come in a letter to anti-HS2 campaigner Jerry Marshall, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph.

The Mayor wrote: “While I have expressed support for a high speed rail network in the past (and continue to support it in principle) my support is conditional on a number of specific criteria and on the need to make the new railway work well for London.

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“The proposal now being consulted on does not reflect these conditions and is inadequate for a number of reasons.”

Proposals to send the track along an elevated section at Hillingdon and at ground level through Ealing raised “significant environmental concerns”, said Mr Johnson, who faces a Mayoral re-election battle next year.

“Elsewhere along the route, particularly outside of London, considerable effort has gone into mitigating noise and visual effects by redesigning the railway alignment to screen it from surrounding areas or by burying it in tunnel,” he said.

“It is perverse that a section of the route through Greater London, clearly affecting large numbers of people, has been subject to so little environmental mitigation.

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“I am seeking substantial changes in design of the route to ensure these impacts are properly addressed, preferably by tunnelling the whole route through London. Without such changes I cannot support the current proposal.”

Warning that the Underground may not be able to cope with the influx of extra passengers if HS2 is built, Mr Johnson said: “I wanted a commitment from the Government that their proposals for HS2 would include new Underground rail capacity between Euston and Victoria. They do not and on this basis I cannot support the current proposal.”

Mr Johnson’s comments are set to put him at loggerheads once more with Prime Minister David Cameron, who last week insisted vocal opponents would not succeed in blocking the plan.

The Mayor, who is widely suspected of positioning himself as a possible successor to Mr Cameron as Conservative leader, has also clashed with the PM over Europe, immigration, tax and cuts to housing benefit.

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Professor David Begg, Director of the Campaign for High Speed Rail, said: “Boris’s U-turn on HS2 is bad for London, unpopular amongst business people and damages the economy.”

The campaign compared the contents of the letter that emerged yesterday with the London Mayor signing up to a letter to The Times supporting HS2 in December last year.

Prof Begg said: “Boris’s comments do not seem to recognise the support amongst London’s business community for a national transport investment that opens new markets, creates access to new pools of talent and boosts London’s economy.”

“One can only wonder at the politicking and hidden agendas that drive this damaging U-turn.

“Boris’s comments display an unfortunate attitude to the needs of the North and the national importance of this important infrastructure investment.”