International Trade

The Rail Revolution

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...between Edinburgh and Glasgow. A similar project is also being investigated to connect Teesside with Tyneside.

More recently, the Mersey Partnership announced it was looking to secure funding for a study examining a 300mph Transrapid maglev route linking Liverpool and Manchester, which would provide a 10-15 minute link. ‘This feasibility study would look at engineering and technical issues, as well as examining methods of financing and procuring the project. It would also dovetail with work being conducted by UK Ultraspeed and their partners in other parts of Northern England and Scotland,’ said Dave Moorcroft, acting chief executive officer of the Mersey Partnership.

UK Ultraspeed – the organisation backing the take-up of maglev technology in the UK – has also welcomed a degree of endorsement for its technology from the Conservative Party’s Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, which states, ‘We have looked at high-speed train options for the UK, and have concluded that an incoming Conservative government should explore the feasibility and costs of implementing the new maglev technology, which offers the opportunity of far faster inter-city travel, and hence a more effective challenge to the aeroplane.

‘This should surely be preferred to spending further large sums of money on attempts to create a limited number of express facilities on our already congested and overburdened track at the expense of other rail services.’

Interestingly, the Government White Paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway, published at the end of last June, dismissed maglev technology as ‘too expensive to represent value of money’.

However, according to UK Ultraspeed, the White Paper ‘reached its conclusion on maglev on the basis of a massive error of fact. The cost of the system is overstated by a staggering £31bn, according to company chief executive officer Dr Alan James. ‘Major infrastructure projects demand robust numbers, not inaccurate cost figures... continued on page four >

 

 

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