West Coast Main Line announcement is Labour spin

3.31.10pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 17th Jun 2003

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne has hit out at today's announcement by Transport Minister Alastair Darling stating that the West Coast Main Line upgrade would be "completed" by 2006.

Liz said:

"Alastair Darling's announcement today is a breathtaking attempt to rewrite history. There is nothing new in this announcement – just the usual Labour trick of rehashing old news. We always knew that the 125mph upgrade was due for completion."

"What they have failed to mention is that the original plan to upgrade sections of the track to enable trains to travel at 140mph was quietly dropped last autumn. In effect, the government today is trying to fool us into thinking a cutback is really a major step forward."

"With the Department for Transport's unfortunate reputation for 'burying bad news' this is not really surprising. But given the number of times Labour have had their fingers burnt using spin, you would have thought they would have seen the error of their ways by now."