Today, Tuesday 10 January 2012, is a historic day for transport in Britain with the government confirming it will proceed with high speed rail. In fact, it is also the 149th birthday of the London Underground, which is a salutary reminder of the vital importance of transport infrastructure for the wealth and health of the country.

High speed rail will link the Midlands and the north with London and mainland Europe. The line may take 14 years to open between Birmingham and London and another six years to reach Manchester and Leeds, but this is a reminder that when it comes to major projects we have to properly plan and prepare for the future. That means having a long-term vision and a plan for how the country will be in 20 years’ time and beyond, not just in the next five years.

Labour have played a key role so far on high speed rail and must continue to do so. In opposition we must support what is right for the country while giving constructive criticism when appropriate. In power we brought the Channel Tunnel Rail Link that brought us closer to Europe with fantastic links to Paris, Brussels and beyond. That line has also brought significant growth and prosperity to swaths of Kent.

The next phases of the high speed network must achieve even more. The first place to benefit is the west Midlands – not just Birmingham but also Coventry and the rest of the region. Connectivity and good transport infrastructure brings significant economic benefits – think of Canary Wharf and Docklands with the Jubilee Line Extension. Crucially, before High Speed Two opens we will see Crossrail (at £16 billion) commence service in London which will increase London’s total public transport capacity by 10 per cent in one go. London will reap immense benefit from Crossrail. To avoid seeing the rest of the country be left behind we need the commitment of a high speed rail network to ensure the other great cities can keep up.

But the real key to this new railway line is capacity. This huge capacity increase benefits commuters through Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire into London. It will also help commuters across the west Midlands into the conurbation. From day one in 2026 it will help travellers to and from the north-west, as intercity services will be able to join the high speed line at Birmingham.

We will also see a paradigm shift in the capacity and cost to move freight on the railways. At present it is virtually impossible to grow rail freight due to the requirements for passenger services. This has to change. Indeed, the high speed line will free up enough capacity on the West Coast Main Line to move an amount of freight equivalent to a full lane of motorway traffic of lorries – and I should attribute that statistic to Steven Burgin, the UK president of Alstom and a man who understands infrastructure better than most!

The coalition government has given the green light to a project given credence and direction by the last Labour transport secretary, Andrew Adonis. Earlier today I watched him still tirelessly championing this project because it is the right thing to do. This infrastructure project is of a scale only seen before with the introduction of the motorway network, a piece of long-term planning and investment that we now take for granted. That parallel is perhaps the best one to consider.

Labour must continue to support the development of a high speed rail network across Britain. We must plan for the future and invest in it.

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Alex Burrows is head of strategy at Centro (the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority) and member of Sutton Coldfield CLP. He writes here in a personal capacity.

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Photo: loudtiger