According to the Independent this morning, the new Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, will today come under huge pressure to change the proposed route of the £34bn High Speed Rail link between London and Birmingham. Continue reading →

The transport select committee has signalled its support for the Government’s HS2 high-speed rail project – as long as it does not drain money from the rest of the rail network.  Mrs Ellman, chairperson of the committee added: “Investment in HS2 must not lead to reduced investment in the ‘classic’ rail network. We are concerned that the Government is developing separate strategies for rail and aviation, with HS2 separate from both. We call again for the publication of a comprehensive transport strategy.” Continue reading →

The Transport Committee has agreed to publish its Tenth Report of Session 2010–12, High Speed Rail (HC 1185-I), at 00.01 am on Tuesday 8 November.  The press will be receiving embargoed copies at 8:00am on 7 November, so you can expect to be able to read about it in your morning papers on Tuesday.

The committee’s role is to investigate the strategic case for the high speed rail link.  They  are not examining the detail of the route or how it would affect individual businesses and residents.  If it is recommended to go ahead, the specific route will be dealt with by a hybrid bill committee.  For details of the terms of reference of the committee please follow this link Transport Select Committee

Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, confirmed in a speech to the Airport Operators Association that Labour has abandoned the route it had proposed when in government for the planned HS2 line between London and Birmingham in favour of an alternative scheme.

Labour now supports a route running past Heathrow and then parallel to the M40 and the existing Chiltern railway line that skirts Princes Risborough, Bicester and Banbury.

The initial plan was drawn up by Lord Adonis, the former transport secretary, two months before last year’s general election. In a speech to the Airport Operators Association, Eagle will admit it was flawed and that it was a “huge mistake” not to connect Heathrow to the route from the start.

Labour’s new proposed route will appeal to many Tories in the Amersham, Great Missenden and Wendover areas who are dismayed by the prospect of a line enabling high speed trains to pass through Conservative heartlands in the Chilterns.

In an attempt to put pressure on Justine Greening, the new transport secretary who is facing opposition over the route from grassroot Tories, Eagle will say that residents in the home counties have been “wrongly insulted as nimbys by Tory ministers”.

The route now proposed by Labour would include a main transport hub at Heathrow, allowing the airport to be directly connected to the High Speed Two (HS2) railway line as early as 2022.  Under the existing plan, Heathrow will be connected to HS2 only by a spur line that is not projected to be completed until 2033.

Greening is already facing a potential battle over the HS2 scheme after Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh secretary, reportedly threatened to resign over the £33 billion project in protest at the route passing through her Buckinghamshire constituency.

Today the Adam Smith Institute released its new report on High Speed 2, High speed fail: Assessing the case for High Speed 2.
The report examines the case for the HS2 project and finds that in almost every case the evidence is highly doubtful about whether it would be worth the money. Continue reading →

According to Jerry Marshall, the chairman of AGAHST (Action Groups Against High Speed Two) this is make or break time in the fight against the HS2 project. Now that Justine Greening has replaced Philip Hammond at the Ministry of Transport a new push is under way to encourage opponents of the scheme to email their MP and the new minister.  To encourage the process a new web site www.highspeedrail.org.uk has been developed to make the process much simpler. Continue reading →

The much-anticipated Parliamentary debate on the proposed HS2 rail scheme went ahead on 13 October – all be it, a bit late! Continue reading →

The consultation period for HS2 closed on July 29th. The Government has said that the outcome will be announced ‘before the end of 2011’. See the Department for Transport website for more details.

Interesting to note that there has been a flurry of negative comment about the proposal in the press following the end of the consultation. On July 31st, the Sunday Telegraph argued “HS2? Just give us a decent train service”. On August 2nd the FT called HS2 a “vanity project unfit for an austere age”. And on August 3rd the Evening Standard called it “the fastest way to waste billions”.

Also on August 3rd, HS2 Action Alliance placed a half-page ad in the Times with a summary of HS2 opinion poll results. And finally here is a compilation of what various MPs, councils, and other bodies have said ‘on the record’ in opposition to HS2 .

Consultation on the Government’s HS2 scheme closes at midnight on Friday 29th July. If you have not already submitted a response, it is probably best to do so online on the Department for Transport Consultation Website. The whole thing need take no more than ten minutes. Remember this is the only opportunity you have to give your views about the proposal. There is more information on the consultation questionaire, and suggestions for how to respond, on both the Chiltern Society and Stop HS2 websites.

The Chiltern Society have released this video with commentary by actor and Chilterns resident Geoffrey Palmer showing areas of countryside that would be devastated if the railway was constructed on the current proposed alignment.