Our conference motion - E01 Green Rail Strategy for the Midlands and the North

<update – the motion passed! Look out for new posts real soon now explaining what this means for the party. And check the Green Party’s press release>

Greens4HS2 have proposed this motion to the 2024 conference expressing the party’s support, with important conditions, for the building of HS2 in full and Northern Powerhouse Rail to completely re-invigorate rail in the Midlands and the North.

The motion was first introduced at the Birmingham conference in Spring 2023, then again at the Autumn 2023 conference in Brighton. Each time, it wasn’t high enough up the prioritisation order to get time to be discussed.

This time, it’s at the top of the prioritisation ballot and will be discussed.

There’s a real appetite within the party to update our position on HS2, established way back in 2011, especially now the scheme is well under construction, and yet has been cut back by mindless Tory slashers.

There’s a new realisation that Greens continuing to call for the whole scheme to be cancelled is futile; and that it’s the rail users of the Midlands and the North who have been shafted by the cancellation of the northern legs.

It’s also clear that our current policy mess puts our MPs are in a weak position to challenge the new Labour government, who have so far failed to commit to invest big in the low-CO2 infrastructure we need, yet are perfectly happy to expand airports.

So it’s high time for a policy re-think!

Our motion gives us the chance to sort it out.

About the motion

The motion (full text on Green Party website) calls for the existing anti-HS2 policy statement to be deleted, and a new statement added to:

Recognise that the climate crisis demands we transition rapidly away from high-carbon modes of transport such as cars, trucks and planes to low-CO2 electric public transport.
Recognise that overall travel must reduce, but a much larger proportion of what we still do must be done by low-carbon modes; and that this means a big increase in trips done by rail.
Recognise that this means we need to invest in new high speed railway lines which will add much-needed capacity by clearing bottlenecks and removing long-distance express trains from the congested current network.
Recognise that only a full network comprising the “Y” of HS2 including the Eastern leg to Leeds and the Western leg to Manchester, plus the East-West link of Northern Powerhouse Rail, maximises the capacity gain where it counts: in the Midlands and the North.

Amendments to the motion

We have consulted with party members and the leadership team as well as campaigners for habitat and local stakeholders and have come up with the following three amendments to the motion to address their concerns. These will be debated and voted on before the motion itself is debated. The motion will be debated with the accepted amendments included.

<update – all these amendments were passed with large majorities>

Amendment 1 – Hold HS2 Limited and DfT to account

This amendment makes clear that Green Party support for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail is contingent on them being built to the very highest standards of care for the impacted environment and local people. That means:

being fully transparent and timely with data on habitat impacts, using the latest biodiversity metrics and including all types of habitat
taking utmost care to limit impact on biodiversity and bioabundance, and making sure there is a biodiversity net gain of 10% or more
having independent monitoring of habitat impacts and remediation measures
making sure all affected stakeholders are fairly and promptly compensated for the impact on them.

The amendment also calls for the project to be managed much more efficiently, to be delivered in full to maximise the benefits, for the local capacity gains to be prioritised, for the extra seats to enable fare reductions, and for complementary policies to maximise shift from domestic air, car and truck to rail.

Amendment 2 – Local Transport REvolution

This amendment calls for the capacity release enabled by HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail on the existing railway network to be prioritised for local and regional passenger plus freight services. The benefits of improved services should be spread as widely across the network as possible, from Bristol and Aberystwyth in the South and West, to Lincoln and Newcastle in the North and East, to enable the Local Transport Revolution the Green Party has long supported.

Amendment 3 – a fair deal for wales

This amendment calls for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail to be recategorised as “England Only” projects, rather than “England and Wales” as they presently are. This will correct a grave injustice to Wales, which does not get any compensating benefit under the Barnett Formula and so continues to have a sub-standard railway system, as opposed to Scotland, which does so benefit.

The full motion, as amended

The text of the complete motion, with the effect of all the amendments included, is set out below.

<update – this now takes its place in the Green Party’s Record of Policy Statements>

“The Green Party recognises that transport pollution remains stubbornly high, and that there is a need to reduce transport demand to sustainable levels. In tandem, there is a simultaneous need to make the greenest modes of transport the easiest and cheapest modes of transport. This necessitates a transformative transition away from polluting modes such as cars and planes towards efficient, electrified public transport. This is consistent with the Party’s strategy to reduce: use of materials, batteries, chemicals and fuels; carbon emissions; air/particulate pollution; noise pollution; urban sprawl; land take from biofuel production; poor public health; and road deaths of adults, children and wildlife. Accordingly, the Green Party supports high speed rail in principle.

The Party recognises that high speed rail lines free up capacity on other rail lines that serve regional and local rail services allowing for more frequent trains to run on these lines. High speed rail lines themselves reduce domestic flights and car journeys for long distance travel because they can better compete for shorter journey times. The uplift in passenger capacity also provides an opportunity to dramatically reduce rail fares.

The Party’s support for high speed rail in practice is nonetheless contingent on its delivery aligning with Green values. Specifically, these values will necessitate:

Proper timely data releases relating to the ongoing impacts of HS2, using up to date biodiversity metrics and not excluding any habitats;
Limiting adverse impacts on biodiversity and bioabundance, and, where adverse impacts are unavoidable, securing a 10% biodiversity net gain within the development site;
Independent monitoring of impacts and remediation schemes; and
Proper compensation for those affected by the scheme’s construction.

The Green Party recognises that the first phase of HS2 between London and Birmingham is well under construction, although its implementation has had significant ecological impacts. The austerity and mismanagement which have prolonged these impacts must end. The project must ensure that the ecological costs of HS2 are outweighed by wider environmental benefits—but half an HS2 brings too many costs and too few benefits. The full network could be used to reduce aviation and car dependency, but only if the Conservatives’ ill-timed cuts to Phases 2a and 2b of HS2 are now reversed.

In order to maximise the benefits of high speed rail, the Green Party will therefore hold the UK Government and HS2 Ltd. to account to ensure: delivery and efficient use of Phases 2a and 2b to Manchester and Leeds (via Sheffield); greater public control of railways; maximum capacity release on the rail network; a subsequent slashing of rail fares to reduce car journeys; and a subsequent ban on domestic commercial aviation within England and Wales.

In doing so, the Party will ensure the delivery of environmental benefits and improvements to regional inequality, providing critical support for an underground through station at Manchester Piccadilly, 11 platforms at London Euston, the Golborne Link (or a better replacement) which enables HS2 services to be easily used on parts of the existing West Coast Main Line to Lancashire, Cumbria and Scotland as well as the originally planned bicycle routes alongside parts of the HS2 route accordance with existing Green Party policy.

Station design will be passenger-led and community-focused, with excellent cycling connections and level boarding to ensure accessibility for all. Positive environmental outcomes will be delivered by each of the stations achieving a BREEAM status of excellent or better.

The Green Party calls for a local transport revolution to be implemented upon the completion of HS2 and the resultant uplift in rail capacity. This capacity should be used by transferring intercity expresses from the existing railway network to HS2, and then utilising the newly freed-up space for new local services to, in and around towns and cities across England and Wales. Specifically, the Green Party calls for these new services to be directed to the following towns and cities:

Those which would benefit from new capacity by virtue of being located along a main line which would be relieved by HS2, such as Bedford, Doncaster, Grantham, Leicester, Loughborough, Luton, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Stamford and Stevenage;
Those which would benefit from new capacity following the removal of network bottlenecks in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, such as Bolton, Bradford, Bristol, Cheltenham, Coventry, Huddersfield, Northampton, Oxford, Warrington, Worcester and communities in north and mid-Wales; and
Those which would benefit directly from new connectivity, namely Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

To encourage the switchover from cars and planes to electrified trains, the Green Party supports the slashing of rail fares which should be possible, as it is in Germany, France and Spain, once the supply of thousands of new seats on improved rail services has been delivered.

In addition to the above, the Green Party supports utilising the uplift in rail capacity to switch freight from lorries and planes to trains to as full an extent as logistically possible.

To further maximise wider environmental benefits and improvements to regional inequality, the Green Party calls for HS2 to be improved further by funding and building Northern Powerhouse Rail which includes a high speed rail line from Liverpool to Leeds with through stations in Manchester and Bradford. This will maximise efficient use of HS2 infrastructure in Manchester including potentially sharing the underground HS2 station at Manchester Piccadilly. The Green Party calls for HS2 services to be extended to Liverpool using Northern Powerhouse Rail infrastructure around Liverpool.

The Green Party calls for both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail to be reclassified as England-only projects rather than England-and-Wales projects. This more accurately reflects the projects’ geographical location and will importantly ensure that Wales receives its fair share of funding under the Barnett Formula. Given that it is not possible to travel by rail between the north and south of Wales (without going on an hours-long route through England), this transformational uplift in rail investment is crucial to the nation’s efforts to connect communities; strengthen cultural ties; resist calls for road-building; reduce car dependency; and tackle the climate and ecological emergencies.”