Government 'finally sees sense' on high speed rail, says MEP Liz Lynne

4.54.54pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 29th Sep 2009

Liz Lynne - Birmingham's MEP

Birmingham's Liberal Democrat Euro MP Liz Lynne has welcomed Transport Secretary Lord Adonis's call for Birmingham to be made the centre of a 250 mph high speed rail network to progressively replace short haul air travel in western Europe.

Lord Adonis has suggested that a new line from the Birmingham to Heathrow and London city centre should be the first step towards a high speed network that would allow a huge shift from road and short haul aircraft to rail, saving billions of tones of carbon.

Liz Lynne has strongly supported high speed rail links from the West Midlands over the last ten years as MEP for the region. She highlighted the lack of progress in her successful re-election campaign.

Liz said "I really hope the recent stories on High Speed Rail are not just cheap summer headlines but part of a fundamental rethink by the Department of Transport. I particularly welcome the stress on links between the West Midlands and other UK regions with continental cities via the Channel Tunnel. I called for this in January when Lord Adonis, then only transport minister, first suggested that he was looking seriously at high speed rail. He is also right to call for cross party support - the Lib Dems have backed this for years but the Conservatives also now claim to support high speed rail in principle. I really hope they stick to this and don't suddenly announce that it is the first casualty of a round of cuts."

Liz added "Birmingham and the West Midlands needs a world class surface transport system to take full advantage of the economic recovery when it eventually comes. It is shameful that Labour has wasted the last ten years other than the relatively minor but very expensive upgrade of the historic West Coast main line. The West Midlands is at the centre of an EU designated Trans European Network but we have little to show for it. The main reason is that our government has not been serious about new infrastructure, or partnerships with the EU to support the costs of it. Spain, France and Germany have all built high speed lines which have drawn support from various EU sources and are planning more. All we have is one line from London to the Channel.

"I really hope the major parties can agree to support a truly long term high speed rail plan. Let's take it out of the political dogfight. As the local Lib Dem MEP I will do all I can to win concrete help from the EU and I hope the other Euro MPs for this region will do the same. Air travel is vastly more energy intensive than travelling on the ground, yet we need to reduce energy consumption by 80% by 2050, at least, to tackle global warming. Where it is possible to shift to high speed rail, on key transport corridors, we must encourage it. No one is suggesting banning people from choosing to fly, but we do need to invest in greener alternatives."

The Paris to Brussels High Speed THALYS service is now so successful that there are no scheduled air services between the two cities. Eurostar already carries over half the total traffic from London to Paris to Brussels, with a huge increase in market share since the new high speed line to St Pancras opened last year.