The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-14)

4 2GN The Sunday Times November 14, 2021

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TRAVEL

preceded it took shortcuts

that compromised safety

features designed to protect

drivers who broke down

when the hard shoulder was

being used as a live lane.

The concept began in 2006

under Labour, when a short

stretch of the M42 hard

shoulder near Birmingham

was made live at busy times.

It seemed a shrewd way of

creating extra lanes without

having to widen bridges or

concrete the countryside.

Penning said he and Philip

Hammond, then transport

secretary, agreed to roll out

smart motorways if they

incorporated safeguards

deployed in the pilot scheme.

“The Highways Agency

said [they] would be covered

by a comprehensive network

of technology ... steadfastly

maintained and monitored by

a well-resourced workforce.

Problems in live lanes would

be rapidly identified, with

speedy closures to protect

stranded drivers.

“The reality could not be

more different. Smart

motorways have been

disastrous. From faulty

cameras to outdated

equipment, a seemingly

wanton lack of care is

resulting in a loss of public

faith.”

He also said it was time for

National Highways to come

under stronger supervision.

A recent inquiry pointed to

“systemic weakness” that

enabled National Highways to

alter the design of major

roads “without any

independent assurance on

safety by a regulatory body”.

@NicholasHellen

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary,

who is expected to announce the out-

come of the Integrated Rail Plan on

Thursday, is likely to face heavy criticism

for the decision to drop the HS2 line east

of the Pennines on the 120-mile stretch

from Birmingham to Leeds.

But one Whitehall source said the

reconfigured plans, with £96 billion of

additional funds, will deliver many of the

promised benefits without having to wait

until the 2040s. “We’re looking at the

same journey times as the original HS

proposals but 10 years sooner. Lots of sta-

tions aren’t well connected to particular

cities — we’re going to make sure stations

are all properly connected to local trans-

port networks.”

The new high-speed routes include:

lA 42-mile line from Birmingham to

East Midlands Parkway, just south of Not-

NORTHERN

EXPOSURE

Ian Cowie on

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investment

MONEY

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MEE TIME

Burnley football

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Ben Mee opens up

about his daughter’s

premature birth

HISTORY

REVISION

A US curriculum

based on slavery

has sparked a war

SPORT BUSINESS

NEWS REVIEW

8.05am The prime minister’s Cop

spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton,

looks back at the climate conference

8.35am Lord Deben, chairman of the

UK’s Committee on Climate Change

11am The chief of the defence staff,

General Sir Nick Carter, on the latest

news from Belarus

11.40am Lord McDonald, former head

of the diplomatic service

2.45pm Lord Hain on the political life

and legacy of FW de Klerk

This week in The Sunday Times

Also on our phone app, on tablet

and online at thesundaytimes.co.uk

1, 16, 27, 32, 33

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Former US staff at

The Hut Group

are attacking

its alleged ‘boys

club’ culture

Nearly £100 billion will be spent on

England’s railways outside London,

including the construction of three new

high-speed lines that will cut journey

times in half.

The investment, due to be announced

later this week, is intended to make good

on Boris Johnson’s “levelling-up” pledge

— despite confirmation that the 120-mile

eastern leg of HS2 from Birmingham to

Leeds will be scrapped.

Rather than focusing on quicker links

from northern England to the capital, a

20-year programme of new lines and

upgrades will halve journey times

between cities such as Birmingham,

Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and

Sheffield. For example, it will take 27

minutes, rather than 72 minutes, to travel

from Birmingham to Nottingham. To get

to Birmingham from Manchester will

take 40 minutes, rather than 90 minutes.

At the heart of the plans is the goal of

creating a rail commuter culture in the

Midlands and the north to rival that of

London and the southeast, thus increas-

ing the job market between cities. At

present, only 10 per cent of journey miles

in these regions were made by rail.

tingham. This is expected to cut journey

times between the two cities from 72 min-

utes to 27 minutes.

lA second high-speed route will run

south from Leeds for about 23 miles,

helping to cut the journey time to Shef-

field from 42 to 24 minutes.

lA third stretch will run for 33 miles

from Crewe to Manchester, to complete

the western leg of HS2. It is unclear

whether a new high-speed line will also

be built from Manchester to Leeds, or

whether this section will simply be

upgraded.

Rail networks are struggling to cope at

a time when there is pressure for people

to ditch their cars, and opt for the greener

option of the train. Passenger numbers in

the morning rush hour rose in a decade

by 41 per cent in Birmingham and 36 per

cent in Manchester, on packed and slow-

moving trains.

At present, trains between Reading

and London run at almost double the

average speed of 48mph achieved by

trains between Manchester, Leeds and

Bradford. Nottingham and Hull have the

worst rail connections of Britain’s biggest

20 cities.

Under projections from the National

Infrastructure Commission (NIC), set up

to provide government with impartial,

expert advice on major long-term infra-

structure challenges, an additional

190,000 commuters a day could travel to

work by rail in ten cities outside London

once the regional upgrades are complete.

@NicholasHellen

Devon’s revived railway line,

News Review, page 28

Red wall commuters

to get rail revolution

High-speed lines and

upgrades will cut journey

times between cities

in the Midlands and

the north in ‘levelling up’

Nicholas Hellen and

Gabriel Pogrund

Smart motorways have been

“disastrous”, and the civil

servants behind them should

be forced to resign, according

to the former transport

minister who approved them.

Sir Mike Penning, a

transport minister in 2010-12,

said: “If politicians had run

the show, the public would

demand resignations. It

should be no different at

National Highways.”

He believes that National

Highways and the bodies that

Nicholas Hellen

Despair of smart motorway architect

Covid test

firm under

scrutiny

over data

the policy says that data

belonging to all those

providing a swab is retained

indefinitely. The supplier of

tests for international

travellers has 71 walk-in

locations across the UK

including at shopping centres

and Heathrow and Gatwick. It

has also provided testing

services to big sports events,

the BBC, Netflix and Amazon,

according to its website.

Its “research programme

information sheet” — last

updated on October 21 —

states that the company

retains data including

“biological samples... and

the DNA obtained from such

samples”, as well as “genetic

information derived from

processing your DNA sample

... using various

technologies.” The policy also

says Cignpost may share DNA

samples and other

information with

“collaborators” including

universities and private

companies, and that it “may

receive compensation” in

return. The UK’s data

protection laws require

organisations to have

informed consent to process

personal data. Rules brought

in last week require testing

firms to declare they comply

with minimum standards.

Last week Cignpost

removed references to its

research programme from its

privacy policy after evidence

of its activities was passed to

the Information

Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

and the Human Tissue

Authority. The ICO is

investigating.

Steve Wood, the ICO’s

deputy commissioner, said

people “must have trust and

confidence” in how their data

is used by testing providers.

He said: “There is no

personal data more sensitive

than our DNA. We’ll look

carefully at the information

gathered by The Sunday

Times.”

Tim Turner, a data

protection expert and

founder of 2040 Training,

which advises firms on the

regulations, said: “Consent

for special-categories data

has to be ‘explicit’. They

don’t have consent — it’s a

straightforward breach.”

Cignpost said it “is in full

compliance with all laws

related to data privacy”,

adding: “We have invested

significantly in robust systems

and processes to ensure we

protect customers.”

@Shanti_Das

→Continued from page 1

India and

China

thwart

Cop deal

requests strengthened

national commitments next

year, which just about keeps

1.5 degrees on life support.”

Professor Emily

Shuckburgh of Cambridge

University added: “Glasgow

has been an important

gateway to a 1.5C world but

we now need accelerated

action to get there.”

Chris Stark, chief executive

of the Climate Change

Committee, an independent

adviser to the government,

said: “The writing is on the

wall for fossil fuels now. We

are in a new period of action

and if that is the legacy of

Glasgow, I will be delighted.”

He highlighted the deal

done in the run-up to Cop26,

brokered by Sharma, to end

overseas coal financing, as a

particular success. The fact

its signatories include China,

which funds coal-fired power

stations across Asia, is

crucial.

“It is difficult to see where

financing comes from on coal

without China,” Stark said.

Sepi Golzari-Munro, the

acting director of the Energy

and Climate Intelligence Unit

think tank, said: “Coal is dead

— and this summit has been

its funeral dirge.”

Richie Merzian, director of

climate and energy at the

Australia Institute think tank,

praised the way the UK had

handled the talks. He said a

series of side deals at the talks

on deforestation, methane,

electric cars and fossil-fuel

financing had been

particularly worthwhile,

adding: “It is hard not to see

this being seen as a success.”

Boris Johnson said: “I hope

that we will look back on

Cop26 in Glasgow as the

beginning of the end of

climate change, and I will

continue to work tirelessly

towards that goal.

“There is still a huge

amount more to do in the

coming years. But today’s

agreement is a big step

forward and, critically, we

have the first ever

international agreement to

phase down coal and a road

map to limit global warming

to 1.5 degrees.”

But others were more

critical, pointing out that the

summit had set out to “keep

alive” the hope of limiting

global warming to 1.5C.

Scientists calculate that when

all nations’ pledges have been

added up, it puts the world

on track to reach 2.4C by the

end of the century.

@ben_spencer

→Continued from page 1

Public cash

to lobby

for Shapps

hobby

questions about whether

Shapps has invested

disproportionate time

and public money in his

private pursuit.

A civil service source said

he was “obsessed” with

protecting the interests of

pilots. They said Dame

Deirdre Hutton, the former

CAA chairwoman, had

pleaded with him to stop

summoning staff to talk about

personal aviation during the

collapse of Thomas Cook.

Shapps is said to have

“backed off ”.

Another said airline chief

executives were furious at his

lack of availability during the

early phase of the pandemic.

Jim McMahon, shadow

transport secretary, said:

“These are extraordinary

revelations, including the

claim that Grant Shapps used

taxpayer money to fund

secretive lobbying for his

personal hobby horse. After

weeks of revelations about

the conduct of Tory MPs, this

is a new low.”

Homes England said the

planning application at

→Continued from page 1

Chalgrove airfield “has been

withdrawn to allow an

amended application to be

submitted to take account of

comments from the Civil

Aviation Authority’s Airfield

Advisory Team”.

It emphasised its intention

to resubmit plans in light of

the “considerable housing

shortfall”.

A Department for

Transport spokesperson said:

“It is right that the transport

secretary works to promote

all aspects of the

department’s brief including

the general aviation sector.”

Sources said the Airfield

Advisory Team was an

“advisory team”, not a

lobbying body, that helps to

liaise with organisations to

ensure “informed decisions

can be made by local

planning authorities”.

They said Shapps

responded to a lobbyist’s

requests by emailing his

office reminding them he

wanted to see “action” on

removing lead from fuel.

Doing so, the sources

suggested, would facilitate a

future ban on the dangerous

chemical.

The government provided

a statement from John

Holland-Kaye, the chief

executive of Heathrow

airport. He said: “The biggest

thing aviation has needed in

the last 18 months is to get

borders open safely again and

Grant Shapps has worked

tirelessly to deliver this.”

Flights of fancy, page 7

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