In the House of Commons today….

The HS2 Phase 1 Bill is back in the House of Commons today, for consideration of the Lords’ amendments.

It will be in the main chamber of the House of Commons, so you can watch it on BBC Parliament (Freeview 131) as well as on the Parliament Live website, here.  The session starts at 2.30, but the HS2 bill is fourth on the agenda, so it is not currently clear when the debate will start.

We will be watching and tweeting – follow @StopHS2. And we’ll also be tweeting as @Penny_Gaines and @JoeRukin.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the Government doesn’t actually think that HS2 is that innovative.  Reports in the Times and City Am say that they want companies like Uber and Google to buy stakes in the consortium that will run HS2 to ensure that it is “future-proofed”.

Of course that was supposed to have been sorted out before the route of HS2 was even announced, for instance by the work of three “challenge panels”.  Two of the panels consisted entirely of men who were already supportive of high speed rail, and our suggestions that digital technologies (you know, the kind of thing that Uber and Google do) will affect the case for HS2 have been dismissed.