Link: Overdue U.K. ‘Bullet Train’ Enters Service Amid Cuts (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
Overdue U.K. ‘Bullet Train’ Enters Service Amid Cuts (Update1)
By Chris Jasper and Steve Rothwell
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s first “bullet trains” enter service in London today, bringing high-speed travel to the world’s oldest rail network. Government spending cuts prompted by the global recession may stunt plans to extend the project.
The 140-mile-per-hour trains, made in Japan by Hitachi Ltd., cut journey times by 50 percent from north Kent to the U.K. capital’s financial district using the High Speed 1 line built to carry Channel Tunnel services to Paris and Brussels.
U.K. Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis told Bloomberg News that the new expresses will act as a catalyst for construction of a High Speed 2 route running north from London and slashing journey times to Birmingham, Manchester and other U.K. cities. Christian Wolmar, author of “Broken Rails,” a history of Britain’s railways, said he doubts the line will get built.
“I have a lot of skepticism about this,” Wolmar said. “I’m in favor in principle, but this should have happened 30 years ago. Construction of a high-speed network would have to span economic cycles so it might be better just to improve what we’ve got.”
Britain posted a 19.9 billion-pound ($33 billion) budget deficit in May, the biggest for any month since records began in 1993, as the recession pummeled tax revenue and pushed up jobless claims. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says government plans imply a 26 billion-pound cut in spending over the three years from April 2011 and that if the opposition Conservatives win power the reduction may be even sharper.
Aging Infrastructure
The U.K. was the first country to build a railway system during the Industrial Revolution, establishing the first passenger line between Stockton and Darlington and the first intercity service from Liverpool to Manchester.
The aging infrastructure has limited speeds and Pendolino trains operated by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have to tilt around corners even to run at 125 miles per hour.
The first high-speed services to London involved Eurostar Group trains that were able to reach speeds of 186 miles an hour following the opening of High Speed 1 on Nov. 14 2007. Prior to that, Channel Tunnel services had used a mix of fast new lines and slower existing ones that terminated at Waterloo station.
Capacity on the 68-mile route is only 40 percent utilized, allowing the Southeastern rail franchise run by Go-Ahead Group Plc to introduce a high-speed commuter service using trains from Hitachi. The Tokyo-based company helped develop the original bullet train, or Shinkansen, which began running in Japan in 1964 at speeds of up to 130 miles per hour.
Javelin Trains
The first domestic services on High Speed 1 will run from Ashford, west of Dover, via Ebbsfleet to London’s refurbished St Pancras International station. The “Javelin” trains from Hitachi are being introduced six months earlier than originally planned and the full timetable will become operational in December.
Go-Ahead will ultimately configure the trains in a 12- car, standard-class only layout able to carry more than 1,000 passengers, Chris Horton, managing director at Southeastern, said in an interview. Tickets from Ashford will on average cost 20 percent more than for existing services.
Keith Ludeman, Go-Ahead’s chief executive officer, said in an interview that commuter revenue generally holds up better in a slowdown than on longer-distance routes as the majority of people travel in standard class and there is less exposure to them trading down from first class to save money.
‘Bridgehead’
Hitachi Rail products will see regular service in Europe for the first time under the contract with Go-Ahead, and Alistair Dormer, the unit’s general manager for Europe, said in an interview that the contract should act as a “bridgehead” for the sale of more high-speed trains in the region.
Transport Secretary Adonis, speaking during a trial run on the route on June 18, said the new service should provide the impetus for the development of a much longer high-speed route.
“It’s great for the region but it’s also a milestone for transport infrastructure in this country,” said Adonis, who sits in Britain’s House of Lords.
While Britain was late in developing high-speed rail compared with countries such as Japan and France, which introduced the TGV in 1981, he said there’s an emerging consensus in the country in favor of High Speed 2.
“I don’t see high-speed rail as a matter for party politics,” he said in the interview. “High speed railways are being built on a sound basis. There’s no going back.”
Birmingham Study
A study on the viability of a London-Birmingham service has been commissioned by Adonis and is due to be completed by December. Rail lobby group Greengauge 21 is also compiling a report for September that will examine the case for the central-England route and four others across Britain.
The pace of development is the major challenge in building an expanded network, Adonis said, with the project requiring “a major commitment on the part of government.”
Hitachi’s Dormer said the Japanese company is expecting a positive impact from the Javelins, which will also transport people to the site of the London Olympics in 2012.
“The real test is whether it captures the imagination of the traveling public,” he said. “But I can’t think how people won’t be impressed.
That may not matter as Britain grapples with a budget deficit that the Treasury says will double to 175 billion pounds, or 12.4 percent of economic output, in the 12 months that began April 1, the biggest since World War II.
“Substantial deficits” will continue into the next decade, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said today, reiterating that the U.K. economy may contract 4.3 percent this year.
Spending Decisions
Greengauge founder Jim Steer said any development of High Speed 2 may force the government to take spending decisions that would curb budgets for upgrading Britain’s existing rail network, as well as its increasingly crowded roads.
“It’s going to require significant public funding just as we’re coming out of a big recession,” Steer said “We’re going to need some strong strategic investment planning.”
Wolmar says High Speed 2 may never get beyond the drawing board. Even if the project was taken forward now, when government funding is short, construction wouldn’t begin until 2016 at the earliest and the line wouldn’t become operational until 2023, he said.
“Lord Adonis is a great fan of the railway and I support him in that endeavor, but I’m not sure the high-speed route is the best way to go,” he said. “We may have missed the boat.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net; Steven Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 29, 2009 08:01 EDT
No comments:
Post a Comment