Prof Andrew McNaughton, who is the chair of the UK’s Network Rail High Speed, says planners and governments need to constantly sell the benefits of fast rail to the public even when initial stages have approval and funding.Prof Andrew McNaughton, who is the chair of the UK’s Network Rail High Speed, says planners and governments need to constantly sell the benefits of fast rail to the public even when initial stages have approval and funding.
“We forgot once we got permission, once we got an act of parliament, once we got the right to build this thing, we forgot that you have to go and re-justify it every day. If you just go ‘Oh we got planning permission, we’re gonna build it’, you’ll lose it. That’s what we found. You have to go out and influence and influence and influence until the day the first train is running,” he said.
Sydney-Newcastle stretch, for which a business case is now being worked on by the federal government’s newly formed High Speed Rail Authority “It’s perfectly possible to, if you get to Gosford and then go the rest of the way on snail rail like we do today,” he said. Explaining to citizens the benefits of how high-speed rail would unlock short visits to other cities, to keep them excited for the future technology, was a crucial part of his shelved fast rail vision, McNaughton told Guardian Australia.