Tue 12 Feb 2019, 07:28 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot CLP, personal capacity.
Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, entitled The Great Train Robbery, questions whether the High Speed project, connecting London to Birmingham is actually value for money.
The project aims to connect London to the Northern cities and it is argued that the new link would regenerate many of the northern towns that have been starved of investment. The programme revealed that the south of England receives two and a half times more rail investment than the north.
The reporter followed commuter trips of those that travel between towns and cities in the north. On one trip, a journey that should have taken 40 minutes, took an hour and forty-five minutes. Overcrowding is common and delays were reported as at a 13-year high. Many are of the view that HS2 should be scrapped and the investment should be redirected to connecting northern cities.
The programme revealed that the current estimate of cost of HS2 is around £56bn, the biggest project in history. Some believe that the real cost will rise to nearly £100b. Research suggests that returns on investment would be greater if the money was spent on improving connections between northern cities.
As one commentator remarked, powerful political and corporate forces are at work, which marginalize those that raise objections to the HS2/HS3 projects. In my opinion, only renationalization of rail, under democratic control will ensure both economic and social benefit for the great majority in the UK.
