Salient points from Government investment plan speech

The salient points for road and rail from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander’s speech outlining the Government’s investment plans in the House of Commons today.

HS2

Alexander said: “It isn’t good enough that the UK has just 68 miles of high speed railway, compared with over 1, 000 in Germany, and over 2, 000 in France.”

He provided long term financial certainty for High Speed 2, earmarking £42.6 billion for construction costs and £7.5 billion for rolling stock.

It is the longest and largest transport budget the Treasury has ever set aside.

Roads

“The government will invest over £28 billion over the 6 years from 2014 in enhancements and maintenance of national and local roads,” said Alexander.

£10 billion for road repairs. Presumably the rest for road expansion projects / new roads.