By Chris Stokes
Feature
The recent Spending Review confirmed two key Government strategies – zero carbon and ‘levelling up’ – and the Treasury’s guidance to other Government departments, the ‘Green Book’, is being rewritten to prioritise these. Apart from the commitment to HS2, and warm words about an Integrated Rail Plan to deliver transformational improvements in the Midlands and the North, there are few specific commitments to rail infrastructure.
Despite the stress on zero carbon, the National Infrastructure Strategy, published on the same day, disappointingly made no mention of rail electrification, although the Department for Transport is developing a Transport Decarbonisation Plan, whose publication has now been delayed until the spring.
