Jon Walker: Waiting game over Birmingham's high speed rail station
Dec 10 2009 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post
The location of Birmingham’s high speed rail station will be decided within three weeks, but we won’t be told the result for many months.
An inquiry set up to determine the exact route of new high speed services between London and Birmingham will report its findings to Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, before the end of the month.
But Lord Adonis won’t publish their report until he has reviewed it and decided to accept its recommendations, which is unlikely to be before March.
The delay is caused by fears that property prices will sink along the chosen high speed route. It’s inevitable that some property owners will experience blight, but ministers have been told by the Government’s lawyers that they can’t publish anything until it’s all set in stone.
However, the findings of the High Speed Two inquiry are almost certain to be accepted in full, even if it takes some time. Lord Adonis is unlikely to decide that he knows better than Sir David Rowlands, the former senior civil servant who has been leading the investigation since January.
Sir David’s report will list various options for ministers to consider, but it will also make it clear which option would, in his opinion, be best.
So his report will have the answers Birmingham is waiting for.
The route a high speed line should take has been a major bone of contention in the region.
Birmingham airport is determined that it should be included on the line and it is backed by local MPs.
Just this week, Solihull Lib Dem MP Lorely Burt was telling the House of Commons “why it is so important that we get a Birmingham International Airport stop”.
She said: “A high speed rail link will make Birmingham International Airport truly international and it will be the first step towards having a better, faster, environmentally friendlier link to the rest of the country.”
Meriden Conservative MP Caroline Spelman has also campaigned for the airport to be included.
However, one assumes that trains will run into central Birmingham, which means there would need to be two stops for the airport to be included, which seems unlikely.
