Posted on 2017-05-15 | 10:40

This is what Roger says about the proposal to build a high speed rail link between London and Birmingham and the north of England.

“The Government is proposing to spend upwards of £32 billion on a new high speed rail project from London to Birmingham, which then goes onto Leeds and Manchester, allegedly saving 30 minutes travelling time from Birmingham and 50 minutes from Manchester. This is madness.

At a time when ordinary people are facing massive reductions in their living standards and watching their community services, such as libraries, nurseries and centres for elderly people, being axed to commit £17 billion - the estimated cost of the line from London to Birmingham - in order to get business people from Birmingham to London 30 minutes quicker is daft. They don’t seem to understand that business people invariably travel first class and use their computers and mobile phones while travelling. They don’t sit looking out of the window!

There are plenty of better transport projects in Birmingham that £17 billion could be spent on. Why not an underground system; or a modern greatly expanded tram system; or improved bus services or new or reopened train lines and stations within and around the city. All of these projects would provide jobs in Birmingham and would benefit everybody – not just a few business people.

HS2 is a vanity project being pushed by vested interests. If it is such a fantastic project then why is it not being financed by private capital or sovereign wealth funds? The answer is that private investors know it is going to cost much more than estimated and that is why the taxpayer has got to pay the bill! ”