Thursday, 28 March 2024
InfrastructureNews

Minister requests HS2 to be accompanied by up to 320km of cycle paths

Having gone back and forth over the years, the decision as to whether the HS2 rail project will be accompanied by adjacent cycle paths appears to have swung in a positive direction.

Rail Minister Andrew Stephenson is reported to have asked HS2 Ltd about the feasibility of turning up to 320 kilometers of access road to the works into walking and cycling routes that could become an artery feeding towns alongside the route with a coherent active travel route. Should the idea gain full approval the route would become one of the UK’s longest end-to-end cycling arteries.

The request is to develop a lengthy network of three metre wide cycle paths adjoined to a 2.5 metre wide footpath, separated by a grass verge. For the most part this will run parallel to the rail route, but have safe distance between.

Work is in fact already in progress on an 80 kilometre stretch of the path, which is to be known as the Buckinghamshire Greenway. This chunk of prime cycle path will stretch from the Colne Valley south of the Chilterns north to Stowe, beyond Buckingham. This will go via the outskirts of Aylesbury.

All is not certain, however. The Government is apparently undecided on further approvals and unsure whether the safe and direct cycle network will be popular.

The funding is to stem from the far-stretched £2 billion walking and cycling budget, which has to cover the costs of Bikeability training, the Bike Repair Voucher Scheme, the costs of Emergency Active Travel funding, the set up and running costs of Active Travel England, various schemes to test the water on electric bikes and electric cargo bikes, plus numerous other expenses incurred before any fresh infrastructure has been laid. Averaged at £400 per year of Parliamentary term, the money has to stretch over cycling and walking schemes and be shared between 333 English local authorities vying for a slice.

A feasibility study on building an accompanying network of cycle paths created by Royal HaskoningDHV, Phil Jones Associates (PJA) and John Grimshaw and Associates was published in 2016. In its conclusion a broad range of benefits were outlined and it was written that tacking on the safe routes would “create a project of national significance and would serve as both a valuable benefit to local communities, as well as encouraging a wide range of leisure and tourism activities.”