§ Mr. Boothasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether Colin Buchanan and Partners has begun its study of methods of road and rail investment appraisal with special reference to the Birmingham via Oxford and Reading to the south coast and London-Paddington routes; and whether he will withhold approval of the extension of the M40 until he has considered its report.
§ Mr. David HowellColin Buchanan and Partners began work on a pilot study of the problems of developing a menthodology for appraising rail and trunk road investments on a comparable basis in December 1982. The study, which was commissioned by the Department of Transport at the request of the standing advisory committee on trunk road assessment, is due to finish by the end of March 1983.
The work is being based on a case study and because much data are known to exist and some relevant work has already been done in respect of the Oxford-Birmingham corridor it has been selected as the appropriate case. The purpose of the study is, however, to throw light on methodological problems. The more directly relevant question for the M40 inquiry is whether any additional investment in rail projects could seriously affect the return on the M40 scheme. This issue has already been covered in studies by the Department and the British Railways Board which show that substantial improvements in rail services on the Southampton-Oxford-Birmingham route, the west coast main line and the midland main line would have only a very small impact on road traffic in the M40 and M1 corridors and hence on the benefits of the M40.
The Colin Buchanan and Partners study will take account of this earlier work but will not in any way supersede it. It is therefore unlikely to have any direct relevance to the inquiry into the extension of the M40.