Published at 08:59, Saturday, 25 June 2011

The short answer for many is yes. Time is money. Anything that cuts the journey time from London to Cumbria will boost the county.

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It will bring new business, more tourists and provide a boost for the companies already based here.

But will we get a stop on the new fast route?

The new line has sparked outrage from many villages along the route approved by the Government from London to Birmingham.

Villagers and countryside organisations have campaigned against the plans which they say will wreck the landscape and tranquility of the areas it will pass through.

Cumbria could face the same issues if the high speed line has to be laid along a new route.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond this week launched a five-month consultation period for the London-Birmingham link.

The Government claim the line will deliver £44 billion of benefits to the UK economy.

Construction of the new network would be expected to begin early in the next Parliament, with the line to the West Midlands completed by 2026.

A Y-shape line will be created north of Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds with links to existing lines to Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The legs to Manchester and Leeds are expected to be finished in 2032-2033.

No timetable has been set for extending the high-speed network through Cumbria to Scotland, though Mr Hammond has said it could be “four or five parliaments away”.

Former Carlisle Labour MP Eric Martlew was chairman of the All Party Rail Group at Westminster and used his final speech in the House of Commons to press for the new rail line to stop at Carlisle.

He remains committed to the cause and says: “The West Coast service will be full by 2014, we need to build a new line, we might as well build a high speed line.

“It will go through Carlisle, there is no economic sense for it not to stop.

“Some of them should stop, not all, but if you are not picking up passengers and setting down, you are not getting any money.”

There are concerns that a new line will need a new station, that Carlisle’s Victorian Citadel station may not be big enough for the new fast trains.

Mr Martlew says a study needs to be carried out soon to discover if it is possible and can see a new station at Rosehill, with a park and ride scheme to service it.

He warns that if the high speed train doesn’t stop in Carlisle, we could be left with a worse service to London than we have now.

“There is a real danger that if we get on a train here, we will have to change at Preston or Manchester instead of carrying straight through.”

Mr Martlew’s Tory successor, John Stevenson, has continued the campaign.

The Carlisle MP, co-chairman of the West Coast Mainline All-Party Group, said this week: “If a high-speed rail line goes ahead it is vital we get a stop before it continues to Scotland. We have to keep setting our case for when the line progresses.”

Developer Fred Story, one of the 12-strong board of Cumbria’s newly-created Local Enterprise Partnership, believes the new line could make a big difference to the region.

“There is not a down side to it from a business point of view.

“It is a no-brainer. We as a county should want this if we want a healthy economy. We have to fight for something like this.

“It might be difficult for Cumbria to justify it stopping in Carlisle, but we should do as much as we can to make sure it does.”

And he says opponents who fear for the damage it may do to the countryside should consider the boost to the economy it would bring.

“It is all very well for people who retire here for the landscape, but there are people who make their livelihoods here.”

Archie Workman, investor development manager for Invest in Cumbria, says the county had a battle on its hands to ensure the new train stops in the county.

Despite the fact that the new line will not be operational for another decade or more, the region’s industry leaders have already started lobbying.

“There has been a groundswell of support from leading businesses in Carlisle,” he says.

“It will stop at hubs, like Birmingham and Manchester, then Glasgow, whether Cumbria has a mass of attraction to have a stop halfway between Manchester and Scotland, I don’t know.

“It would benefit the county, it would attract inward investment and save business people time travelling from London. Time is money.

“If we can get them to Carlisle in two hours, we can do a lot more business in the day.”

One major stumbling block for what will be a multi-million pound scheme is what route the new track would follow.

Mr Workman adds: “If it can’t go along the existing lines for slower trains, could they lay the new lines as middle tracks?

“I can’t see the Lake District National Park Authority allowing a completely new line to go through the Park.”

Andrew Forsyth, executive director of the Friends of the Lake District, believes new track will have to be laid to take the HS2 through Cumbria.

This could cause a downgrading of the current service, and the scarring of the countryside.

“A lot of money has to go into HS2, that money has to come from somewhere and we would want to see at least as good – and if possible an improvement on – the normal rail service.”

He says the argument over creating the new line boils down to a simple equation: is reducing the travel time to London by an hour worth disfiguring the National Park?

“A stop in Cumbria would be good,” he agrees. “There is a national inability to value our landscape in pounds and pence.

“Go to the Treasury and ask what price they would put on a square kilometre of National Park and they would not be able to tell you.

“We value it in intangibles, such as well-being, space and bio-diversity.

“There is not a measure. Not one generally well-known.

“It is priceless.

“When it is gone it is gone. When a road or a rail line or an overhead power line is put through it, that value is greatly diminished and for all time.

“And it can’t go back to what it was.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk