Taxpayers face a bill of at least £8 billion for a new 200mph railway line from London to Manchester after the Government admitted for the first time that the service would require a huge public subsidy. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, said that the economic and environmental benefits of the line would be so great that it was fair to consider making taxpayers fund more than half the cost. Those using the line would pay a proportion of the running costs but the capital cost would largely be borne by the public purse.

The Department for Transport is due to publish details of costs and the preferred route by the end of the year. Early estimates indicate that the line will cost at least £16 billion and as much as £30 billion if extended to Glasgow.

Under Lord Adonis’s plan, “High Speed Two” would become by far Britain’s most heavily subsidised long-distance rail line. He said: “There is currently no high-speed line in the world that has been built without a very big government subsidy and it is inconceivable that we could build a North-South high-speed line without a substantial public contribution. “I certainly wouldn’t say that the farepayer would be committed to pay the majority of the cost. But when it comes to operating costs, of course the farepayer would make a contribution.”

Read the full article in The Times.


Just so we're clear: "the economic and environmental benefits of the line would be so great that it was fair to consider making taxpayers fund more than half the cost".

Meanwhile the taxpayers' proposed contribution to the third Heathrow runway is? Zero. (Apart from the related infrasructure which has been conveniently ignored by the government).

We know there are no environmental benefits - quite the opposite - but what happened to the fantastic economic benefits of the third runway that the government has been trumpeting?