MASSIVE GROWTH IN COMMUTER RAIL DEMAND INVALIDATES ARGUMENT FOR HS2. - High Speed 2 Action Alliance

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April 25, 2014

MASSIVE GROWTH IN COMMUTER RAIL DEMAND INVALIDATES ARGUMENT FOR HS2.

HS2 ACTION ALLIANCE

NEWS

April 25, 2014.

MASSIVE GROWTH IN COMMUTER RAIL DEMAND INVALIDATES ARGUMENT FOR HS2.

Commenting on an Office of Rail Regulation report stating rail usage has increased massively since the mid-1990s, Richard Houghton of HS2 opposition group HS2 Action Alliance (HS2AA) said:

“Once again, a rail industry report makes the point that the capacity crisis is in local commuter travel, not long-distance rail. No matter how it’s packaged up, there’s no way an HS2 high speed rail service between Birmingham and London – with no stops in between – would address the issue of over-crowding on commuter trains into and around major cities up and down the country.

“80% of rail travel is journeys of 30 miles or less. The increase in commuter and local rail journeys in London alone between 2012 and 2013 – 49 million – was one-and-half-times the TOTAL number of rail journeys on Virgin services in a year, 30 million.”

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

John Read

john.read@readdillon.com

07774 476391

http://www.hs2actionalliance.org/

You could build a new Millennium Dome every 6 miles between London and Birmingham for the same cost of constructing Stage 1 of HS2.
You could build wall of pound coins 20 feet high from Euston to New Street for the same price of Stage 1 of HS2. Or you could use the money to improve our existing railways without destroying anything.
When the Conservative Party first announced their support for high speed rail in 2008, they claimed the entire network could be built for £15 billion. Latest estimates - £42 billion plus.
More than 70 per cent of the 30,000 jobs created around HS2 stations in Stage 1 will be in London rather than the West Midlands.
Around 10,000 jobs will be created in the West Midlands from Stage 1 of HS2. This for a region with over 2.6 million adults of working age of which 235,000 are unemployed.
HS2 was so important to British business that just 429 out of 4.5 million of them responded to the 2011 national consultation on HS2.
HS2 Ltd’s own forecasts indicate the construction of a new high speed rail line would lead to a 1% decline in motorway traffic between the West Midlands to London.
HS2 Ltd’s own forecasts estimate just 3% of HS2’s passengers will be switching from air to rail.
HS2 Ltd’s own forecasts estimate just 6% of HS2’s passengers will be switching from the car to rail.
HS2’s revenues will cover just 29% of its capital costs, down from over 40% since February 2011
HS2’s latest business case assumes there will be over £7bn of cuts to existing rail services to help pay for the new line.
London will benefit from 70% of jobs created by Stage 1 of HS2. London is the biggest winner from HS2.
The UK already has quicker rail journey times between the capital and its five largest cities than any other major West European country.
Network Rail’s figures show Euston the least busy domestic long distance service station - just 60% capacity in the morning peak.
Demand for HS1 in 2006 was forecast by the Department for Transport to be 28 million passengers annually. The actual passenger traffic using HS1 today is only 9.7m.
HS2 will link just four city centres - Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London.
Official forecasts assume most of HS2’s passengers will be travelling for leisure purposes and that trips to London will grow at twice the rate as those from London, bringing more people and more money to London.
55% of HS2’s benefits captured by official forecasts arises from the idea that people don’t work on trains.
89% of HS2’s projected passengers will transfer from less polluting alternatives to high speed rail.

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