- If the new line only serves parkway stations, rather than city centers it risks adding to congestion and encourage car use
- CfBT's Director states it will provide greener long-distance travel
- Government is so focused on getting plans through against local opposition that it ignores the need for improving the whole network
- Minister's will cut budgets elsewhere meaning steeper fare rises and cuts in local services
- The best greener alternative is to electrify more
- New jobs created will mainly be in London and the Heathrow link will only increase air travel
HS2 high-speed rail plan offers insufficient return on investment
Even government claims that a full scheme will bring £2 for every £1 spent are easily beaten by other rail and road projects
The Guardian Monday 28 January 2013
Government's estimate shows HS2 will deliver benefits of only £1.40 for every £1 spent.
The benefits of the full scheme are now claimed to be of the order of 2:1. This is better but still easily beaten by other rail and road projects.
Key figures to focus on are that the capital and operating costs are estimated, as of August 2012, at £59bn and the revenues at £33bn. Crucially, this leaves £26bn to be funded by the taxpayer.
The initial justification for HS2 was to expand capacity, but advocates have failed to address the extent to which this is needed only at the peak. There are plenty of empty seats on the west and east coast main lines. To unquestioningly plan to meet growing peak demand can only be described as "predict and provide". With £26bn at stake there must be a more committed attempt to see if there are cheaper ways of dealing with a problem that affects a relatively small number of people.
The government has applied the best analysis to assess the value of "wider economic benefits" for competitiveness, labour markets and agglomeration. Adding these only raises the total benefits from £2 to about £2.5 per £1 of spending; and they are not normally counted when appraising alternative schemes.
Everything claimed beyond that is speculation and without supporting evidence it's hard to balance against the indisputable costs.
The effects on "regional development" and the "north-south divide" could go either way and one person's assertion is as good as the next. Where is the evidence that bringing Manchester within an hour or so commuting time of London will not amplify rather than attenuate London's gravitational pull?
A disproportionate amount of the construction spending on HS2 will be in London and the south-east because that is where the engineering is most expensive. But jobs would be created however the public money were dispensed.
The nation needs more infrastructure – in particular transport infrastructure – to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and economic recovery. We must spend the desperately limited public funds on those projects with the best return. While HS2 may score highly in terms of political and personal legacy, it will not help the tens of millions of ordinary travellers for whom it is an irrelevance.
Row over funding to fight HS2 plan
Coventry Telegraph 15 September 2011
A ROW has developed over thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money pledged to fight the HS2 train line set to cut through Warwickshire.
Warwickshire County Council is known to have pledged £50,000, with consultants fees and legal advice already swallowing up £40,000 of that in their fight against HS2.
North Warwickshire Borough Council and Stratford District Council are also part of the 51m group but have not pledged money.
MP Graham Evans says the pledge of money by the two councils is illegal as it breaks rules which ban the running of campaigns using taxpayers’ money to influence the view of the public on a matter of policy.
But campaigners and councillors have hit back. Councillor Michael Doody, leader of Warwick District Council, said: “The HS2 funding was met from the council’s reserves and contingency budget.
“The HS2 funding is a one-off cost which the council was able to contain within the specific funding, whilst the savings required to be found are recurring.
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