High Speed 2 is a plan for high speed trains, to connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
It will cost £80 billion (more than £1330 for every man, woman and child living in England, Wales and Scotland).
There are numerous arguments against the extortionately expensive plans. It has known, even by the HS2 company, that very few passengers will shift from cars or planes to HS2. In fact, HS2 will only be viable if millions of rail journeys switch to high-speed trains, which emit vast amounts more carbon than current trains. Even the Department for Transport accepts that the carbon emissions from the construction of materials for HS2 will be huge.
You may be aware of the comedian John Bishop. Well, HS2 Ltd wanted to build their track straight through his house, so they(taxpayers) paid him £6.8 million so that the house could be demolished!
Not only do taxpayers have to buy people’s houses – which will be demolished, but the nearby houses will be unsalable
Almost farcically, HS2 will not connect passengers to where they want to go. HS2 will not go to Birmingham New Street (the central hub), but to the new station at Curzon Street. This will require passengers to find their way the 0.7 miles from Curzon Street to central Birmingham. While in London, it will not connect to Eurostar of Crossrail as it will go into Euston.
Maybe a good strap line for it is ‘HS2: truly a train designed for Brexit!’
