TRANSCRIPT OF PART OF ANDREW NEIL’S INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS GRAYLING ON THE BBC1 SUNDAY POLITICS PROGRAMME 2 OCTOBER 2016
AN: HS2, the high speed train. Can you say categorically this morning it will go ahead?
CG:HS2 is due to start construction in the spring. It’s got to finish its passage, the hybrid bill has to continue its passage through the House of Lords – I hope that’ll be done around the end of the year – and then the plan is construction will start in the spring.
AN:You support it 100%?
CG:I do.
AN:When does it arrive? When does the first train arrive here in Birmingham?
CG:Well, the timetable is for the middle of the next decade, around 2026 when the first
trains will arrive. And, of course, the point to make about HS2 –
AN:No, no. Will it be 2026? Will it be on time and on budget? Because the select committee of MPs on this said it’s unlikely to be on time and will almost certainly be over budget.
CG:Well I am absolutely clear that I expect it to be delivered on time and on budget. When we set out in the spring detailed construction plans, when we start work on the route itself –
AN:What is the latest estimate of costs?
CG: The latest estimate of costs for the entire project or phase one?
AN:Phase one.
CG:Well, phase one the core cost is about £14 billion, and then there’s contingency on top of that.
AN:How much?
CG:Well, it’s set to Treasury rules.
AN:So, it’s going to be at least £14 billion.
CG:Well, £14 billion is the core construction cost, but we’ve rightly set aside some contingency. But you always do in every project. That’s not something new to this one.
AN:If you really believed in the Northern Powerhouse, would this money not be better spent, instead of making it quicker to come to Birmingham from London, which I can already do in under 90 minutes – and it’s a rather pleasant 90 minutes – would it not be more sense to spend this money on state of the art road and rail links between East and West, Lancashire and Yorkshire? That would be a proper Northern Powerhouse.
CG:Well, my view is we need to do both, that’s why we’re electrifying the trans-Pennine
route. And the whole point about HS2 – people tend to look at this as being a speed project – it’s not, it’s about capacity. How, for example, do we get more freight off roads and onto rail? We can’t do that unless we create more space. And by taking the fast trains off the West Coast Main Line, which is already a busy route for freight and suburban services and express services, putting the fast trains onto the new route, you create more capacity for freight trains, more capacity for trains to places like Milton Keynes, Northampton, Coventry. It’s about making sure we’ve got a transport system that can cope with the demands of the 21st century.