Monday, 27th October 2014: Campaigners today said that the so-called HS3 Northern Powerhouse proposals were a tacit acknowledgement that HS2 would not ‘rebalance the economy’ as the government had previously claimed.
Whilst launching an uncosted HS3 proposal, the Government pointed out the poor quality of east-west links, and said improving these was the key to improving the economy of the north. The Prime Minister said that it would cost £6-7billion if it cost the same per mile as HS2.
This follows the publication of a Sunday Times Poll, which showed that HS2 was the bottom of the list of possible infrastructure projects amongst the British public, and that opposition to HS2 far outweighed support for it.
Penny Gaines, chair of Stop HS2 said
“Originally, HS2 was supposed to be about speeding up journeys to and from London to revitalise the north. But even the prime minister realises that HS2 won’t do that and HS3 is a smokescreen to hide the fundamental flaws in the HS2 proposal.
“The government say they are looking for ways to reduce the costs of HS2. They already know that high speed rail is more expensive then conventional rail, but rather than asking the question what is the right sort of new connectivity between the north east and the north west, they are assuming that the option to look at must be high speed. The real risk is that by starting with high speed as the answer, they will design another railway that does not solve the issues that there are with transport in the north of England.”
“With the Court of Auditors in France reporting last week that the emphasis on high speed had a negative impact on the conventional railway used by ordinary people, it looks like Osborne and Co want the soundbite of high speed without necessarily building a railway that would be right for the ordinary commuter in the north of England.”
Stop HS2 Campaign Manager Joe Rukin said:
“The entire concept of HS2 was a mess when it was first announced, continued to be a mess during development and is still a mess despite the announcement. Changing the mess that is phase two doesn’t change the fact that phase one is still a complete mess, as is the entire concept of HS2.
“We have been saying since the start that if you want to help regenerate the north, you would spend the money there, and the very last thing you would do is make it quicker to get to London.
“Up until now, northern cities have been offered HS2 or nothing, now there is something else on the table, which would actually help the north, support for HS2 will crumble further.
“The proposal for HS3 is a tacit admission that HS2 will not deliver the growth for the North which has been promised and a load of new stuff is needed to make HS2 work, but this will still not provide connectivity and focuses on just two cities.”
With the announcement that the government are setting up a review of the costs and timescales of HS2 and other high speed projects Penny Gaines added
“After increasing the HS2 budget to £50 billion last year, the Prime Minister asked David Higgins to look at reducing the costs of HS2. Instead he said that the budget was right, but that Higgins was dropping the link to HS1 and the work at Euston needed for HS2. Now, at the same time as producing this report, Higgins quietly dropped the Manchester airport HS2 station from the plans.
“HS2 is a project with out of control costs, that will not serve the real needs of this country and that is environmentally damaging. Rather than relaunch it yet again, David Cameron should have cancelled it entirely.”
HS2 Phase One Additional Provision (September 2014 …
https://www.gov.uk/…/consultations/hs2-phase-one-additional-provision-…
11 Sep 2014 – Consultation on the Additional Provision (September 2014) environmental statement.
HS2 Additional Provision (September 2014) environmental …
https://www.gov.uk/…/hs2-additional-provision-september-2014-environ…
10 Sep 2014 – HS2 Additional Provision (September 2014) environmental statement … It also gives rise to a consultation on the supplementary environmental …
Additional Provision (September 2014) environmental … – HS2
http://www.hs2.org.uk/…hs2/consultations/…/additional-provision-september-2...
A consultation is now being held on the Additional Provision (September 2014) Environmental Statement to ensure that the decision taken by Parliament at Third …
HS2 Phase One Additional Provision (September 2014) Environmental Statement Consultation
Response Form
This consultation will close on 23:59 on Friday 14 November
A proposed set of changes to the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill, known as an “Additional Provision”, has been introduced to Parliament, addressing a number of amendments required to enable HS2 Phase One to be delivered. In line with Parliamentary Standing Orders, Supplementary Environmental Information (Additional Provision Environmental Statement) has been produced.
A consultation is now being held on the Additional Provision (September 2014) Environmental Statement to ensure that the decision taken by Parliament at Third Reading of the Bill is informed by the public’s views on the Bill’s environmental impacts.
Submitting your response
Please only use the email and postal addresses described below when responding to this consultation. We cannot guarantee that responses sent to other addresses will be included in this consultation.
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Freepost RTKE-HKLL-TJYB
HS2 Phase One: Additional Provision September 2014 Consultation
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Documents
The Additional Provision (September 2014) Environmental Statement is composed of a number of documents:
The “Non-technical summary” is a summary of the changes and any likely significant residual effects on the environment. You may find this a useful place to start.
“Volume 1: Introduction and methodology” is an overview which describes the proposed amendments, construction information relating to utility diversions and any changes to the scope, methodology, assumptions and limitations required for the environmental assessment associated with them.
“Volume 2: Community Forum Area (CFA) report and map book” describes more comprehensively the changes at a local (community forum area) level. It explains the amendments, any likely significant effects on the environment and the measures proposed to reduce or avoid them. It is accompanied by a map book, showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ details of the proposed amendments, which is split into six parts. This volume also describes any changes to the original technical appendices.
“Volume 3: Route-wide effects” describes any new or different likely significant route-wide effects arising from the amendments, compared to those reported in the HS2 Phase One ES.
“Volume 5: Map book” contains mapping information that supports the technical surveys described in Volume 2.
There will be no Volume 4, which dealt with off-route effects, published in this AP ES as none of the amendments relate to off-route areas.
Please let us know your comments on the Additional Provision (September 2014) Environmental Statement in relation to the Non-Technical Summary and four volumes.
Question 1: Please let us know your comments on the Non-technical summary.
My comments on the Non-technical summary are:
Question 2: Please let us know your comments on Volume 1: Introduction and methodology.
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Question 3: Please let us know your comments on Volume 2: Community Forum Area (CFA) report and map book
You are welcome to comment on one, a number or all the reports listed below. Please tick the reports described below that your comments apply to. If making comment on more than one report, please indicate clearly in your response the report to which your comments relate.
Please tick those reports you wish to comment on below:
My comments with regard to the reports ticked above are:
Question 4: Please let us know your comments on Volume 3: Route-wide effects.
My comments on Volume 3 are:
Question 5: Please let us know your comments on Volume 5: Map book. Please indicate in your response which map(s) your comments apply to
My comments on Volume 5 are:
Thank you for completing the consultation response form. Responses to the consultation will be analysed and used to produce a summary report which will help inform Parliament’s consideration of the scheme.
It will cost more per mile, so likely to be £ 10 BILLION plus. That has also been implicitly acknowledge by Higgins.
On TV this morning Higgins was asked twice if he thought HS3 would cost MORE PER MILE than HS2. He twice answered that he could see no reason why HS3 would cost more than HS2. Since HS2 is likely to cost more than £ 50 BILLION that isn’t adding a lot to the fount of human knowledge.
Higgins is not just deeply unimpressive but as slippery as a snake oil salesman.