Getting desperate to defend HS2

It is interesting to to note that in their desperation to try and justify their increasingly implausible support for HS2, those who advocate it are becoming more and more insulting! e.g. the letter from Jan Gillett in last Friday’s Courier which sets out to brand all of those who justifiably oppose it as ‘nimbys’. For very good economic and practical reasons, Jan, I strongly oppose it even though, living in Warwick, it’s never going to come anywhere near my ‘backyard’. You even say in your letter “there’s a lot of narrow thinking being aired in relation to HS2”..... and then go on to prove it with your own mis-guided views!

It is most encouraging, in fact, to see that the Tory-controlled Warwickshire County Council is taking its own anti-High Speed Rail campaign directly to the Government. In fact, apart from the Government, the only major organisations who appear to support the proposal, presumably because they themselves would be the only ones to benefit from it, appear to be Birmingham City Council and Boris Johnson’s Greater London Authority. Them and a few mis-informed individuals like Jan.

However, it is so important that we don’t all get dragged into the “which route should the line take” or the “how loud will the trains be” debates, as this is a subtle way (or not so subtle, going on the ‘Yes Campaign’s current amateurish and pathetic “Lawns v Jobs” posters!) of the Government trying to get us to agree that the line is actually going to be built, and it’s just a case of where it’s going to go and how much noise it is going to make! Instead they should concentrate on the basic questions of who precisely wants it, why it is even needed and how is the £30-plus billion going to be found in order to knock 20 minutes off the time of the journey from Birmingham to London?!

If available at all, that sort of money should surely be spent on updating and extending existing lines, adding coaches to existing trains, modernising stations as well as improving roads and other essential aspects of the country’s infrastructure, never mind building more hospitals and schools.

The only people who could afford to use it if it is ever built (which it won’t be!) are wealthy business men and politicians in Birmingham and London. No ordinary people in Yorkshire or the North West would be able to afford the fare, even if they could get to the nearest station.

Let us all hope that common sense rules and that the current ‘consultation’ by the Government proves to them that the majority of the country don’t want HS2, don’t need it and if built won’t use it. - John Payton, Kettlewell Close Warwick.