HS2 Action Alliance Blog

 As part of its campaign against the Government’s plan for a high speed rail line, the Alliance against HS2 just launched a hard-hitting new advert illustrating how investment in policing could be protected by cancelling the £33bn project.

The advert (below) contrasts the choice between keeping police officers in work or funding a new rail line that few people will use, and was unveiled at the start of the labour party conference in Liverpool on Sunday 25th September 2011.

It highlights that the money being spent on HS2 in this Parliament alone – before construction has even been given the go-ahead – amounts to £800m. That sum by itself is enough to pay the wages of 19,000 police officers.

To download the advert please click here.

Read more ...

Philip Hammond told everyone last Tuesday (13 September) even the current trains are a rich man’s toy.  We are glad he acknowledges our point on this.  So why does he think we should build HS2 – at a cost of £17bn of subsidy to the taxpayer?  It certainly isn’t because he expects a more representative ridership in future – his officials predict fares will be 50% higher than now – and that is even before any thought of premium fares as with HS1.

Philip Hammond said that while factory workers may never travel on HS2, they will benefit from their bosses doing so.  Perhaps not a seat at the feast, but a share of the crumbs that fall to the floor.  But because the government’s sums greatly exaggerate the benefits (eg assuming people don’t work on trains), this feast in reality would be very slim pickings.

But, irrespective of this, only 30% of passengers will be travelling for business purposes – his figures not mine.  The other 70% will have personal reasons – shopping trips, visits to the theatre, holidays.  How will Philip Hammond’s factory worker benefit from his boss and family enjoying subsidised travel to do this?
How can Philip Hammond seriously propose proceeding with HS2 – which costs £32bn and will provide subsidised transport for the rich in 15 years time – when local transport lacks the funding to help people get back into employment, education and training right now?

Can wasting a fortune so the government can play ‘high speed trains’ really be the right priority?

Read more ...

Professor Begg welcomed ‘A Better Railway for Britain’ with a raft of misrepresentations on his website. He fails to notice that the paper is concerned with wider issues than HSR, realising that this would require going beyond repeating DfT arguments. Instead he deploys the tactic of constant repetition as a substitute for the actual position.

This is hardly surprising as Philip Hammond seems to be hanging his case on the rail alternatives not being able to deliver the required capacity, despite the plain fact that they can.

1 The 51m proposal would not damage

Read more ...

‘Yes to High Speed Rail’ claims HSR will create jobs. Professor Begg’s web site has a rotating headline banner that says: ‘Create 1 million jobs support High Speed Rail’ – citing Volterra. Is there really any truth in it?

Volterra (in their July 2011 study for the Core Cities) tell us that HSR will ‘underpin’ the creation of 1M new jobs. Why do they say this? Well they are quoting the results of a study by Oxford Economics (also for the Core Cities) that says that with a range of favourable economic developments there might be 1M new jobs by 2020.

But what role does HSR have in this? Even if Professor Begg has his way and HS2 is the first bit of a HSR network, HS2 will not run its first train until 2026 – six years after all these jobs have been created. So what role could HSR have in the creation of 1M new jobs for 2020? – None at all!

So why has Professor Begg quoted the claim? Well if he restricted himself to saying good things about HS2 that were actually true, he’d be unobtrusive in a Trappist monastery.

If you are interested in the facts about jobs have a look at our resumé of the evidence.

Read more ...