Osborne urged to improve existing northern rail before building ‘HS3’

Following a speech by the Chancellor suggesting that northern cities could be linked by high-speed rail, more than one paper suggested that the Government should concentrate on improving the existing rail infrastructure in the north before it even starts thinking about high-speed rail.

Rik Thomas

27 June 2014

Chancellor George Osborne’s idea of a high-speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds was not well received by the papers

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne of tentative plans for a high-speed rail link between several cities in the north of England, immediately dubbed ‘HS3’, produced a critical editorial in The Financial Times on 24 June.

“Mr Osborne is right, if belatedly so, in wishing to create a ‘northern powerhouse’,” The FT conceded. “Nevertheless, the Chancellor’s effort to shore up Tory support in the north has missed an...