York taxpayers may face HS2 bill (From York Press)
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York taxpayers may face HS2 bill
9:31am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News
By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter
City of York Council taxpayers may have to contribute towards the high-speed railway service bill
YORK council taxpayers may have to contribute towards the cost of Britain’s new high-speed railway line, it has emerged.
The Department for Transport has confirmed that, while funding for the £32.7 billion HS2 will come in large part from central government, local authorities might decide to offer support to secure benefits for local residents.
“Any third party contributions will depend on local circumstances and could take a variety of forms,” said a spokesman.
“It is right to offer local authorities an opportunity to do this. The timing of any local authority contributions to HS2 will depend on the local circumstances.”
He said council-tax levels were a matter for individual local authorities. “In setting out our aspirations for contributions from third parties to the HS2 programme, the Government has not anticipated any changes in council-tax levels.”
City of York Council deputy leader Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing said: “Clearly we want York to enjoy the economic benefits of HS2, and to that extent we will sit down and look at what is required in terms of local authority contributions.
“Last week’s paper was very open-ended in this respect so we await more detail. What we are clear about is our focus on the local economy and job creation so this will always been borne in mind when considering any spending commitments.”
Tory group leader Ian Gillies said he did not expect York to have to make a contribution, as the new line would not even get to the city.
While the HS2 will not reach York, a spur from the new line will extend to Church Fenton, near Tadcaster, where it will link up with the East Coast Main Line just south of York.
York passengers are expected to benefit from cuts in journey times through HS2, with the York to London journey reduced from just under two hours currently to as little as one hour, 23 minutes, while the York to Birmingham journey would be reduced from 130 minutes to 63 minutes.
The project is also expected to create thousands of jobs in the region.
Comments(17)
BL2
says...
10:09am Tue 12 Feb 13
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
11:18am Tue 12 Feb 13
Any train using the eastern branch at the top of HS2 has to end up in York...
... so whoever operates the trains will have to make arrangements to use York station facilities. There's no onus on York to stump up funds at all.
purpletimbo
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11:20am Tue 12 Feb 13
Capt. Dobie
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11:42am Tue 12 Feb 13
Figure plucked form thin-air or from a coherent and reliable study?
Ridiculous idea asking for CoY residents to pay for this at any level...
ReginaldBiscuit
says...
12:01pm Tue 12 Feb 13
New word - 'Horsemeatmongers' - The number of self-eggrandised individualists and egomaniacs trying to associate their names with this story in a vain attempt to raise their credibility and profile whilst enhancing their career prospects.
Utter nonsense - 'Business Speak' - The language of idiots represented by such gobbledegook as "This will bring real economic benefits to the city", "Sit down", "Meetings" and "Put York on the map". The beauty of Business Speak is that you can vomit and repeatedly excrete the same words in slightly rearranged sentences to produce the same inconsequential and irrelevant garbage.
Apes - 'Predictors' - It is impossible to predict the future. Look at the financial mess the world is in because it turned out that those who thought they could predict the financial future in actual fact, couldn't.
Causality - 'Doesn't exist' - Apes try to put reason and meaning into events when in actual fact, everything that happens is completely random. Too much planning, too many meetings is a bad thing.
Indebtedness - 'United Kingdom' - The most indebted nation on earth. You seriously think the world banks will sanction the most overdrawn student at the university of global finance, the billions that it requires to undertake this project?? Unicorns are real and I've just seen a heard of flying cows.
The pope - 'Harry Redknapp' - odds slashed to 25-1 to be the next pope.
krites
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3:17pm Tue 12 Feb 13
Pete the Brickie
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4:15pm Tue 12 Feb 13
mmarshal
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4:40pm Tue 12 Feb 13
Pete the Brickie wrote:Totally agree. I cannot see anybody travelling from York to Church Fenton to save 37 minutes on the onward journey to London; unless of course the hidden plan is to reduce the availability of direct slower trains. In the unlikely event that I'm still around when HS2 arrives, I would prefer to take the slow train rather than journey to Church Fenton then pay inflated prices on HS2. In the meantime, I'm likely to pay increased council tax for something I'll never see, let alone use.
If the new line doesn't come into York how can you get a 37 minute time saving? One journey starts in York and ends in London, the other starts in Church Fenton which takes about 37 minutes to get to from York.
the butler
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4:52pm Tue 12 Feb 13
emen
says...
5:34pm Tue 12 Feb 13
mmarshal wrote:The proposed plan is that the HS2 trains will trundle along the existing line out of York and then join a new dedicated line which will start between Ulleskelf and Church Fenton.
Pete the Brickie wrote:Totally agree. I cannot see anybody travelling from York to Church Fenton to save 37 minutes on the onward journey to London; unless of course the hidden plan is to reduce the availability of direct slower trains. In the unlikely event that I'm still around when HS2 arrives, I would prefer to take the slow train rather than journey to Church Fenton then pay inflated prices on HS2. In the meantime, I'm likely to pay increased council tax for something I'll never see, let alone use.
If the new line doesn't come into York how can you get a 37 minute time saving? One journey starts in York and ends in London, the other starts in Church Fenton which takes about 37 minutes to get to from York.
As far as I can see the only reason it's coming to York is so that the line can eventually be extended further north to Scotland and the chances are that will require a dedicated line around York rather than through it.
Cari6192
says...
5:37pm Tue 12 Feb 13
mmarshal wrote:The trains will go to York. The proposed line joins to the existing track just north of Church Fenton before joining the ECML. They won't stop at Church Fenton.
Pete the Brickie wrote: If the new line doesn't come into York how can you get a 37 minute time saving? One journey starts in York and ends in London, the other starts in Church Fenton which takes about 37 minutes to get to from York.Totally agree. I cannot see anybody travelling from York to Church Fenton to save 37 minutes on the onward journey to London; unless of course the hidden plan is to reduce the availability of direct slower trains. In the unlikely event that I'm still around when HS2 arrives, I would prefer to take the slow train rather than journey to Church Fenton then pay inflated prices on HS2. In the meantime, I'm likely to pay increased council tax for something I'll never see, let alone use.
Caecilius
says...
5:45pm Tue 12 Feb 13
mmarshal wrote:HS2 trains aren't going to stop at Church Fenton. The spur from Leeds will join the existing ECML at a point near Church Fenton, that's all: there's not going to be an HS2 station there. The idea is that you'll get on an HS2 train in York and it'll run on the existing ECML track until it reaches the new junction, when it'll transfer onto the high speed line and go to warp speed, so to speak.
Pete the Brickie wrote:Totally agree. I cannot see anybody travelling from York to Church Fenton to save 37 minutes on the onward journey to London; unless of course the hidden plan is to reduce the availability of direct slower trains. In the unlikely event that I'm still around when HS2 arrives, I would prefer to take the slow train rather than journey to Church Fenton then pay inflated prices on HS2. In the meantime, I'm likely to pay increased council tax for something I'll never see, let alone use.
If the new line doesn't come into York how can you get a 37 minute time saving? One journey starts in York and ends in London, the other starts in Church Fenton which takes about 37 minutes to get to from York.
So the time it takes to get from York to Church Fenton station on existing trains, which in fact is only 15 minutes at most, is academic.
Paul Meoff
says...
8:10pm Tue 12 Feb 13
CelebrityBoots
says...
9:36pm Tue 12 Feb 13
York1900
says...
10:44pm Tue 12 Feb 13
The only people who seem to benefit is big business and the rich
Magicman!
says...
1:08am Thu 14 Feb 13
Anyway, I have a simple thought: if York was to be asked to contribute to HS2 then I'd like to think Leeds would be asked to contribute at least 1/3 to 1/2 as much again on top, considering there will be more trains along HS2 that will go to Leeds than there will to York. York will get 2 Highspeed Trains Per Hour to/from London whilst Leeds will get either 3 or 4htph to the capital.... and from what I recall of the figures I saw I think it's a similar story for Birmingham.
Also, HS2 trains will not proceed up the WCML to Scotland but will either go to liverpool, chester, or terminate at Preston - there is simply no capacity north of Lancaster to support more trains.
pedalling paul says...
9:46am Tue 12 Feb 13