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HS2 isn’t pointing "true North”

In such an environment, I should have been like a small boy. A restored steam train running down the line to Swanage, sidings chock full of memorabilia and restoration projects in train (pardon the pun!). It was like travelling back in time, embroidered antimacassars adorning the seats adding to a sense of Victoriana.

Swathes of mature men and women populated this short piece of track with a passion for what they do – the rituals and procedures – matching that of anywhere in a commercial world, espousing high levels of employee engagement. Most of all they love the memories and emotional anchoring to a past that was simpler, if a little less sophisticated.

The age of steam always instils a fascination for yesteryears. As a child of the late 50’s, I missed the generation that was truly connected to what was referred to as “the golden age of steam”. Equally, as we ponder the merits of HS2, it’s fascinating to see the dirty, smelly diesel trains of the recent past have acquired a cult following, as they themselves form a nostalgic phase for the generations that swapped the coal-blackened downdraught for the oily ambience of diesel as British Rail proudly pronounced “this is the age of the train”.

With the diesel age in decline, electrification is now rightly ascendant in a green age. We now interminably argue about poor investments in our Victorian infrastructure resulting in trains being too short, and HS2 opening up the “North”. This is very strange for those in the North East who know that many Whitehall Mandarins seemingly have no clue as to where the North actually begins! HS2 involves a concentrated investment of funds, opening up some parts of the country, simultaneously casting others into a hinterland of lesser developed infrastructures and concomitant reduced economic opportunity.

I have lived and worked in the North East most of my life and it is an area I care for and have great personal commitment to. However, it concerns me to see that an area that can attract Hitachi to build trains does not attract significantly improved infrastructure. It pains me to see the need for an effective motorway infrastructure spanning the region and single lane carriageways being duelled, particularly in accident spots.

HS2 will create winners and losers as any concentrated investment does, working on the fallacious idea that we need to connect to the capital at all costs when, in a modern, technologically-based society, this notion of epicentres of geographical power are perhaps becoming redundant.

Politically, of course, as a traditional Labour stronghold we have been subject to either Labour complacency or Tory indifference and the electorate are particularly apathetic at the polls as a result of these dynamics.

The reality is that the while not being particularly well served by HS2, the North East is performing stunningly well in the area of manufacturing. Indeed, if replicated elsewhere, it would render the country “the workshop of the world” yet again. Despite this, our political masters seem averse to dealing with the North East on a fair, equitable basis.

Many Institute of Directors members must have taken appropriate umbrage at the Minister involved in HS2 indicating that members of this august body were not “in possession of the facts”. It’s rather curious, given that they are looked to at other times as the wealth generators and movers and shakers of industry.

Once again we dwell in the political zone where we don’t have real debates or true consensus politics. We simply have the old “ask and tell” approach of vested interests and pet themes. While those advocating competing economic models thrash out the pros and cons of a particular initiative, morality, equity and fairness are relegated to the shadows.

It occurs to me that pre-1963 and the Dr Richard Beeching Reports commissioned under the conservative administration of the day, the infrastructure was fairly distributed around the country and government disinvestment ended the age of steam as we knew it. What might it have been with sustained investment and technology? Quite what railway “age” we enter with government investment in HS2 is a moot point. What appears clear is the North East still needs more infrastructure support and the region’s contribution to manufacturing and GDP, not the ballot box, better valued than it currently is.

David Cliff is Managing Director of Gedanken and Vice Chairman of the Institute of Directors’ County Durham and Sunderland Committee.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Cliff .