A NEW alliance of green campaigners is urging a rethink on the route and nature of HS2, accompanied by suggestions that if a new line is built, its trains should be slower than the government has proposed.
The grouping consists of a number of countryside organisations, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, RSPB, Greenpeace, Campaign for Better Transport, Chiltern Society, Civic Voice, Environmental Law Foundation, Friends of the Earth, The Wildlife Trusts, and Woodland Trust.
These bodies have published a Charter which sets out four principles for ‘doing High Speed Rail well’. They are not opposing the line altogether, because they fear that would provide a boost to the roads and aviation lobbies.
Instead they want radical changes, aimed at protecting the environment, and call for a ‘national transport strategy’, better long-term planning of the effects of big transport proposals and effective public participation.
The alliance said: ‘Many groups commenting publicly on High Speed Rail to date have represented either people living along the proposed route or businesses and cities that could profit from it.
‘Today's Charter draws together for the first time many well known national charities, covering environmental, heritage, countryside, legal and wildlife issues, in addition to other organisations. It seeks to achieve the best long-term outcome from high speed rail for the country, the climate, communities and the countryside.’
One suggested compromise is that trains could be slower, reducing the need for such a straight route.
Ralph Smyth of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said a reduction in the proposed speed, which is currently up to 400km/h, would make more routes available for consideration ‘and provide more opportunities for engagement with local communities’.
“If they keep to the design speed it has got to be a straight railway,” he pointed out.