A GROUP of business leaders, as well as the head of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, is urging the government to abandon its plans to build a High Speed line between London, Birmingham and the North.
In an open letter to the Daily Telegraph, the writers dub the HS2 scheme ‘an expensive white elephant’.
The 21 signatories dismiss High Speed 2 as an unaffordable ‘vanity project’ that will cost each family in Britain more than £1,000.
They say it will be wrong to spend more than £30million on a ‘train set that only a minority of fortunate passengers will use’, claiming the money should be used to help the economy in other ways.
The alliance, which includes Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next, who is also the Conservative Party’s competitiveness adviser, and Nigel Lawson, a former chancellor, wrote: ‘An extremely expensive white elephant isn't what the economy needs.
‘If the Government want to encourage growth, there are better ways to get Britain growing and make us more competitive than getting each family to pay over £1,000 for a vanity project that we cannot afford.’
Their views are in direct conflict with those of the transport secretary, Philip Hammond (pictured), who is whole-heartedly behind the scheme and launched the public consultation in Birmingham on 28 February, saying that ‘after an extensive review of the options’ the Government had concluded ‘the only sustainable transport solution’ for the future was High Speed rail.
Mr Hammond went on: “No other form of transport investment offers the same package of benefits. Indeed, countries across the developed world have come to the same conclusion – and are pressing ahead with ambitious plans for high speed rail. The UK simply cannot afford to be left behind.”
His words have echoed the sentiments of the pro-High Speed rail lobby group Greengauge21, which has maintained that one important benefit of the new line will be to release capacity on existing routes. Network Rail expects the West Coast Main Line, in particular, to be full within six years.
Writing in the new edition of Railnews, Greengauge21 director Jim Steer said: “Reaction to the Greengauge 21 report on securing benefits on the ‘classic lines’ has included the argument that ‘these new services will require subsidy’.
“To be expected, perhaps, with the Taxpayers’ Alliance in the fray. Perhaps they would like to do away with all financial support for the railway and give the savings to their chums in the Motorists’ Alliance? They will do the HS2 protestors no favours with their suggestion that HS2 doesn’t offer a pay-back; sad to say there are still people who believe everything can be gauged in cash terms rather than economic impact.”