He has many years’ experience in rail policy work, and has a wide knowledge of European rail freight and transport generally, the challenges across all member states and the need to find solutions to the funding, congestion, emissions and service quality of the transport sector. He was chair of the European Commission’s RU Dialogue Subgroup on access to facilities that provided the industry input to the legislation. Tony Berkeley sits in the UK House of Lords and was an opposition Transport Spokesperson 1996-7. He was Public Affairs Manager of Eurotunnel from 1981 until the end of construction of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 and, before that, worked for George Wimpey plc on a number of civil engineering projects in the UK and overseas. He is a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in the UK. He speaks French and some German.

10 September 2020 - Letter to Andrew Stephenson MP on the Wendover tunnel option. Tony Berkeley challenges the reasons for DfT trying to close down discussion on this option on the grounds of cost (but HS2’s record on costs is questionable), on building tunnels in chalk (it is quite possible if you want to do so!) and the need or not to seek new permissions for a tunnel (there is a precedent for using the Transport and Works Act Order procedures). He concludes that ministers could do this with a positive message and no detriment to the overall project. See associated documents - (rh200902) - (rh200905) - (rh200909) - (rh200910) 5 September 2020 - Press Release - HS2 – ‘To build or not to build' - where is any commitment? Today, the Prime Minister said HS2 would ‘fire up economic growth and help rebalance opportunity…across the country for years to come.’ HS2’s Mark Thurston said ‘the reality of high speed journeys joining up Britain’s cities in the North and Midlands and using that connectivity to help level up the country has just moved a step closer’. But where is the commitment backed up by money? The most important means of rebalancing the economy is to give the North and Midlands at least the same level of commuter services that the South East enjoys. HS2 delivers very little of this……. - (rh200903) 18 August 2020 - Press release - Invest in the classic rail network rather than close it! The tragic derailment near Stonehaven last week reminds us of the increasing severity of storms and floods on our classic rail system. It follows a warning only four weeks ago from the Office of Rail Regulation about the vulnerability of Network Rail assets to landslips and severe weather. Government policy to target zero carbon by 2050 can only mean, for transport, increasing rail use and increasing investment including more electrification. Rail is by far the safest form of travel, over 1,000 times safer than road travel. So there is a strong argument for greater investment in rail, in particular on the classic lines which were generally built over 150 years ago before the extreme weather hit us so frequently. In my Dissenting Oakervee Report on HS2 (January 2020) I urged the government to prioritise local and regional lines and services in the areas served by HS2, at a cost of £128.5bn in addition to the £106bn cost of HS2. In July 2020, along with Michael Byng, I published a report on improving the rail infrastructure of the South West at a cost of £1.2bn, less than 1% of the £106bn cost of HS2. Both these reports reflect the greater need for improved local and regional rail connectivity and resilience, to encourage economic regeneration and help achieve a lower carbon transport system – something that HS2 does not do. We must also consider whether the many reports of more permanent remote working, particularly by those who were travelling longer distances by rail, will not reduce demand for longer distance rail travel to the extent that the existing intercity services could serve customers well for many years. After all, the use of laptops on longer journeys also reduces the need for world-beating speeds on our small country! However, Private Eye 1528 published last week reported that the Treasury wants to do another round of ‘Beeching’ cuts on the rail network to reduce the £700m per month it is paying to the railway to substitute the fares lost through Corona Virus lockdown, exacerbated by government advice to avoid public transport where possible. If Treasury wants to save £700m per month on the rail sector, then it could cancel or reduce the scope of HS2, saving up to £120bn, and invest, instead, on modernisation the classic regional rail infrastructure and instruct the Department for Transport Ministers to encourage and promote rail transport rather than tell people to avoid rail where possible. That is the quickest way of increasing the revenue of the railways and helping the transport sector achieve zero carbon. 14 July 2020 - Letter to Andrew Stephenson MP, Minister for Railways, on the failure of Government and HS2 ltd to comply with the Development Agreement between them, and concludes: ‘From the information which I have summarised above, it would appear that these changes to the Development Agreement and continuing failure to inform Parliament in a regular and consistent basis were and are intended to mislead parliament. The May 2020 Report of the PAC makes similar strong criticism, as did my Dissenting Report on HS2 dated January 2020; it is surely time to accept in public the comments in the letter sent by S of S Patrick McLaughin MP to Chancellor George Osborne MP dated 11 May 2016 saying, and I paraphrase, ‘We cannot build HS2 for the price, but let’s keep any increase totally secret otherwise Parliament may not approve the Phase 1 Bill.‘ - (rh200714) 30 June 2020 - Royal Over-Seas League Lecture. Lord Berkeley was asked to speak on the future of rail in the UK. He recently published a dissenting report into the High Speed 2 project on January 5, calling it ‘the wrong and expensive solution’ to providing better north–south inter-city services and improving services in the Midlands and North of England. He was Deputy Chair of the Oakervee review of how and whether to proceed with HS2. To read full document - (rh200630) 16 June 2020 - Update. Letter from Andrew Stephenson MP, Minister for Railways, on HS2 approaches to Euston and Old Oak Common - (rh200602) Letter Tony Berkeley to Andrew Stephenson MP, Minister for Railways on terminating HS2 at Old Oak Common - (rh200617) Jonathan Roberts, train timings approaching Old Oak Common - (rh200616) Chris Stokes, Passenger Dispersal from Old Oak Common as terminal for HS2 (dated 19 September 2019) - (rh190913) 17 May 2020 - Press release - Lord Berkeley, author of the Dissenting Report into HS2 in January of this year, welcomes the Public Accounts Committee report issued today. “I am pleased that Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has taken steps to investigate HS2, but it is clearly not enough. Unfortunately, the report has failed to take into account the even earlier warnings that I, and others, gave the Government several years previously about the cost increases, the many senior whistle blowers who were silenced, and the failures of successive ministers to properly inform Parliament. “HS2 Ltd. and those working on it at the DfT have had no regard for proper process or Parliament. As recently as last month, why did the DfT give the go ahead to begin building HS2 on 15 April 2020 when it must have known about the ongoing PAC review? It is very unlikely that Parliament would have given approval had it been provided with the necessary cost information in a timely manner.” To read the full press release - (rh200517) Press Release 17May 2020 PAC.1. To read the full - Public Accounts Committee Report. 15 April 2020 - Press Release - HS2 – the ultimate £100bn vanity project as GDP forecast to drop by 35%! Comments by Lord Berkeley on the HS2 Phase 1 Go-ahead’ ‘The Government’s giving HS2 the go-ahead at a likely cost of over £50bn flor Phase 1 just a day after the OBR suggested that the UK faced the worst recession for 100 years and a forecast drop in GDP of 35% is certainly well timed to get minimal scrutiny. ‘The accompanying DfT Full Business Case claims that HS2 will help the economy by providing shovel ready work for the construction industry, but fails to acknowledge that there are more and much cheaper rail shovel ready projects which will bring greater benefit to rail users. ‘DfT has also not explained whether the main contractors have agreed to design and build Phase 1 for the latest DfT funding envelope of £45bn, especially when ministers were already saying since March 2019 that the Phase 1 spending envelope was £55bn, similar to the more credible estimate of Michael Byng of £54.5bn quoted in my HS2 Dissenting Report. ‘The Benefits are still based on 17 trains per hour for the whole scheme into Euston, in spite of evidence from around the world that no high-speed lines operate more than 12 to 14. No prudent economist would base a business case on an operation that is not achievable in practice. Elsewhere in the Business Case, the DfT struggles to find even more ambitious benefits to attribute to HS2, including ‘higher foreign investment into the UK’ (2.11). Is t his really dependent on HS2? ‘The DfT accepts that the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) will be affected by the current Corona Virus travel restrictions, but fails to quantify by how much and for how long. However, it reduces the BCR to 0.8 for the Funding Envelope of £40bn (Table 2.4), reducing to 0.7 for 10% less demand. Surely the lower demand is very likely as a result of Corona Virus changing demand? ‘Putting all these together, I believe that the BCR quoted in my Dissenting Report of 0.6 is much more realistic. Fig 2.1 reminds us that a BCR of over 2.0 is ‘good’ and below 1.0 is ‘poor’. ‘At a time of the Corona Virus health and business costs well exceeding those of HS2, it is surprising that ministers are still throwing more good money, our money, after bad. The NHS could clearly benefit from the £billions that could be saved for investments in the NHS and other parts of the UK economy by scrapping HS2, whilst still potentially investing in alternative and much better targeted rail projects listed below. Ministers seem to be keeping their collective heads well in the sand, whilst hoping that the lack of scrutiny due to the Coronal Virus will mean that, by the time they surface with the full knowledge of the UK’s financial situation, it will be too late to stop this unnecessary drain into what remains a massive vanity project.’ Further reading: DfT Full Business Case-High Speed 2 Phase One: (Click here to read the PDF) Tony Berkeley Dissenting Report on HS2 – See below January 2020. 5 April 2020 - Letter to PM saying that Network Rail’s need for £500m of rail construction workers shows that Oakervee was wrong to say that there were no other ‘shovel ready’ projects apart from HS2. (rh200405). Examples of Network Rail’s ‘Shovel Ready Projects’ include the four tracking of the Castlefield Corridor in Manchester which is the cause of much of the rail congestion in the area and which Network Rail reports is one of the few ‘Congested Infrastructure’ projects in the UK; Castlefield Corridor congested infrastructure report in PDF Secondly, the extension to the Midland Main Line electrification is genuinely shovel ready with the existing team soon running out of work. So why does the Department for Transport refuse these vital projects going ahead whilst spending millions on keeping HS2, and its preliminary works contractors who ignore social distances, on life support. 25 March 2020 - Letters to PM and Shapps. (rh20317). 15 March 2020 – letter to HS2 Minister Andrew Stephenson MP on Euston Station and approaches. It asks why HS2 continues to demolish buildings and structures when ministers from the PM downwards have said that HS2’s will no longer be responsible for Euston and it will be subject to a new review to integrate HS2 and Network Rail parts and reduce the overall costs. (rh200311). 10 March 2020 - Key issues arising from the Oakervee Review of HS2; Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum Conference, 10 March 2020. (rh200308). 28 February 2020 – Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer – HS2- a way forward to save £65bn. This includes the latest cost estimate of HS2 and the alternatives, with a paper ‘Connecting Britain by Rail’ by Robert Goundry, James Mackay and Jim Summers which gives more details of the alternatives providing more capacity and better services than HS2. (rh200226). 11 February 2020 - Oakervee Report published. January 2020 - Tony Berkeley Dissenting Report. A report by Deputy Chair Tony Berkeley setting out his conclusions on the evidence submitted to the Oakervee Review. It concludes that the evidence does not support a decision to proceed. (rh200105). November 2019 – Tony Berkeley’s letter of resignation to Doug Oakervee. (rh191111). August 2019 - Tony Berkeley was Deputy Chairman of the Oakervee Review of HS2. He resigned in November 2020 and published his Dissenting Report in early January 2020. August 2019 - Oakervee Review Terms of Reference. Long and detailed terms of reference for a very short 2 ½ month review. (rh190920).

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Private Members Bill, November 2019. Tony Berkeley has proposed a number of private members bills to make changes to how the Duchy operates, and designed to make it comply with legislation applicable to private sector organisations, as it claims to be, and remove the special privileges which it has adopted or been granted over the centuries. Click here for Bill text. 7th January 2019 - Leaseholder reform – submission to the Law Commission’s Inquiry, mainly in connection with the unfair treatment of some Duchy Tenants. (fs190102).

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20 July 2020 - A Rail upgrade plan for the South West at 1% of HS2 cost. A fully costed plan for rail upgrades and reopenings in the South West which will open it up for business, and avoid repeats of the serious resilience failures of sea and river flooding which affected the only main line over the years. It builds on the local successes in Cornwall of more frequent services which not only enable easier commuting to schools colleges or work but also contribute to the government’s zero carbon agenda. Revised version with map of press release and plan. - (rsw200719)

Questions and speeches in the Lords Written Questions and Answers. To see all Tony Berkeley’s Written Questions and Answers, click here and then key in subject/key word (eg HS2), Name of member (Lord Berkeley) and for answer by (name of department) generally Department for Transport, Treasury etc. Speeches in Lords Click here and follow the instructions on the screen and key in ‘Lord Berkeley’