HS2 time savings exaggerated critics say

Ministers have been accused of exaggerating HS2 benefits to passengers as some journeys will be speeded up by less than half the time suggested in a new report.

According to the Government’s latest business case for the £50 billion scheme, HS2 will bring the current four hours and 23 minutes needed to get from London to Edinburgh down to down to three hours and 38 minutes - a saving of 45 minutes

But the projected savings failed to take into account new generation of intercity trains on the East Coast Main Line which will enter service in 2019.

This fleet of 140mph Hitachi trains, costing £1.2 billion, will cut the journey time to four hours and five minutes.

It means that HS2 will in reality only cut 27 minutes from the fastest journey time.

According to the DfT report, HS2 will cut the time taken to get from London to Newcastle from two hours and 52 minutes to two hours and 19 minutes - a saving of 33 minutes.

But the Hitachi fleet will, in any case bring the journey time down to two hours and 35 minutes.

As a result HS2 will cut the fastest journey time by only 16 minutes.

While the Government has insisted that the main benefit of HS2 was adding capacity to the network, faster journeys are seen as another key plank of its business case.

However David Prout, the civil servant running HS2, said the 351-mile scheme was essential to spread economic benefit across the country.

Otherwise, he said, Britain would have a “global city surrounded by rust belt".

However opponents of HS2, a 351-mile scheme linking London to Leeds and Manchester via Birmingham, accused the Government of being creative with its use of statistics.

"That’s double counting by anyone's standards", said Hilary Wharf, director of the HS2 Action Alliance.

Cheryl Gillan, the former Welsh Secretary and Tory MP for Chesham and Amersham, was withering in her condemnation of the DfT.

“After four years this project is still fighting for its life and yet it will be one of the biggest pieces of expenditure the taxpayer is asked to cough up.

“At this stage basic errors on the train times undermine confidence in the ability of the Department for Transport and HS2 ltd to deliver.

“I suggest the project is abandoned and the DfT goes back to the drawing board.”

Frank Dobson, Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, added: "They have never got things right before, so why should we expect them to get things right now."

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “These figures illustrate the benefits of HS2 against current journey times and for many places the reductions will be significant.

“We have always been clear however that capacity is the key benefit of HS2 and that Britain cannot afford to leave the economic future of great cities like Manchester and Birmingham to an overcrowded, 200 year old railway.”

In the document, the latest version of the Government’s business case for the scheme, the DfT did cut back its overall estimate of the economic benefit the scheme will bring.

Having previously argued that the 351-mile line would earn £2.50 for every pound spent, the latest estimate has scaled this back to £2.30 as it accepted that businessmen would be able to work while travelling by train.

Known as the Benefit Cost Ratio, the calculations have been used by the Government to argue that the £50 billion scheme, which is due to be completed by 2032, would boost the country's economy.

But much of the value was based on the assumption that time on the train was completely wasted and that the shorter the journey the greater the economic gain.

These assumptions were ridiculed by opponents, who pointed out they were based on outdated research.

Now, having conceded that it overestimated the value of cutting journey times, the Department for Transport has scaled back its initial estimate of what faster travel is worth to the country.