Enough’s Enough: Stop HS2

This article was posted today by campaigning website Enough’s Enough, and has been sent to all MPs.

Dear Member of Parliament,

Tomorrow MPs are due to vote on HS2.

With a current budget of £56billion, it’s the most expensive train line in the world, offering ‘abysmal value for money’.(1)

Earlier this month Conservative rebel MPs, Labour, the SNP and others showed they could work together by voting against Sunday trading laws, estimated to be worth +£1billion to the economy.

And there’s those disability cuts worth around £4.4billion over the next few years, now being rethought.

And now Hinkley Point, from which it’s estimated that HS2 demand will require around half a nuclear reactor’s worth of energy … 800MW.

Given the current climate, here are a few facts worth considering before voting on HS2 …

  • Just 1% of the public see HS2 as a spending priority. (2)
  • Unless it slows down, HS2’s safety is in question, which makes the high speed part kind of pointless. (3)
  • HS2 has not been proven value for money and is currently being reported on by the National Audit Office (NAO). It would be prudent to at least wait for this information before voting. (4)
  • The NAO’s previous conclusion was, ‘The Department is trying against a challenging timetable to strengthen its evidence and analysis, which at present provide a weak foundation for securing and demonstrating success in the programme in future’. (5)
  • HS2 is still listed as amber-red by the Government’s Major Projects Authority. (6)
  • HS2 is set to destroy huge swathes of the countryside, including dozens of irreplaceable ancient woodlands. (7)

In summary, HS2 is ridiculously expensive, unfit for purpose and enormously destructive.

Please vote against HS2 and pursue a truly connected, less expensive and destructive solution to the UK’s rail needs.

We can do much better.

Many thanks.

enoughsenough.org


NOTES:

  1. Telegraph
  2. ComRes
  3. Daily Mail
  4. National Audit Office
  5. National Audit Office
  6. The Financial Times
  7. The Times

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3 comments to “Enough’s Enough: Stop HS2”
  1. Ask the House of Lords to support local projects desparately needed to ease your daily journeys and needs not HS2

  2. Pingback: HS2 – Sophie West Media

  3. How kind of enoughsenough.org … They appear to have made this investment decision very simple for MPs.

    All MPs need to do is imagine is it’s their own money they’re spending.

    Simples.

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