HS2 – A Waste Of Time
What Is HS2?
Together We Will Win
For those of you who have been living under a rock or not living within the UK, HS2 also known, as High Speed 2 is a government plan to construct a new high speed rail network. That will connect cities such as London, The West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester. Costing over £50 Billion and causing irreversible environmental damage.
Advantages Of HS2
(If Any)
- Creating Space On Crowded Routes
- Making Room For Freight
- Quicker Journeys Between Cities
- Economic Benefit And Creating Jobs
- Positive Environmental Effects
So HS2 seems pretty promising, right? Well this may be true, until you look at how they (The Government & HS2 Supporters) use smoke and mirrors to create a false sense of hope surrounding HS2. I will continue to explain what the above “Advantages” really of for us, the taxpayers.
Space On Crowded Routes
HS2 promises to help crowded routes become less crowded, sounds pretty simple right? Routes such as between London, the Midlands and the North. Claiming that they are running out of capacity at a vast rate. However when you look at the statistics another story is told. Virgin WCML trains are on average only 52% full (at peak times). This translates to a train with a seating capacity of 589 currently only using an average of 229 seats and almost all trains going into London can be lengthened to seat 693 people.
Clearing Space For Freight
Train capacity isn’t just people travelling, freight trains are “estimating” a 120% increase in use by 2030, however Lord Berkeley Chairman of Rail Freight Group spoke up against HS2 explaining that for at least the first 6 or 7 years after opening seven HS2 trains an hour will run on the current West Coast tracks. This will create a “Capacity Crunch” in The Midlands and North. Lord Berkeley continues to explain that even after completion of HS2 there will still be constraints for freight trains caused by HS2. This situation has the whole freight industry worried.
Better Journeys Between Cities
The High Speed train service promises to connect cities in the UK by providing faster train times, while bringing the cities of UK closer together so commuting will not take a day anymore. However how much time is really saved if you use HS2? Well let’s say the conditions of the trains route are perfect, no leaves on the tracks, no snow, no ice, no hold ups or delays, no floods or no 220MPH+ crashes. With all this avoided the travelling time from London to Birmingham will be cut by 30 minutes. The journey from London to Liverpool will save an estimated 25 minutes and only 30 minutes from London to Glasgow.
However many of HS2’s train stations will not be located in the centre of towns and many passengers will be required to travel to and from the stations on service such as buses or on foot. With some stations up to 15 minutes walk outside of the local city centres such as Birmingham. The HS2 station in Birmingham is going to be located outside of the city centre and will require passengers boarding alternative transport methods to travel into the busy city centre..
Economic Benefit And More Jobs
The government explain that HS2 will create £60 Billion in “User Benefits” once complete. It will also create 122,000 jobs making a return on investment of around £1.80 for every £1 invested. Unfortunately all of these jobs will not be permanent as told by the government and most of the available jobs will be in and around London, making the increase in economics a big gain for London but not much elsewhere. Birmingham will only receive 8,300 jobs of which some are jobs already filled but just moving towards the stations. Furthermore since talks of HS2 began the ROI (Return On Investment) has dropped considerably from £4 for every £1 to a miserly £1.80 for every £1, however this is only if the cost of HS2 stays at the same estimated amount that it is currently at.
Positive Environmental Effects
How cutting holes in the UK’s landscape can offer positive effects on the environment is beyond me. However HS2 say’s it will help reduce carbon emissions by making less people travel by plane and car. Again however statistics don’t quite add up as only 5% of its passengers, will move from plane (1%), and car (4%). The high-speed trains will also need at least 3 times the energy as normal inter-city train.
Along with the Aviation market continuing to shrink and the car industry soon to be all electric or plug-in hybrids HS2’s CO2 emissions argument is rapidly shrinking.
Most Important!
HS2 Say’s Exterminate!
Apart from wasting billions, using broken stats and all arguments for HS2 having cheaper and possibly more effective solutions however there is one disadvantage that has struck my heartstrings. This is the loss of Animals and their Habitats. HS2 will cause damage or destroy up to 350 unique habitats, 67 irreplaceable ancient woodlands, 30 river corridors, 24 SSSI’s (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and 100’s of other sensitive areas.
This will cause major problems to a lot of animals including many national and country-important species including animals such as Otters, Great Crested Newt, several species of Bat, Freshwater Crayfish, Stag Beetle, Smooth Newt, Common Frog, Slow-Worm, Common Lizard, European Water Vole, Eurasian Badger, rare Butterflies and breeding Birds. These animals have been identified by surveys covering only 47% of the planned route, with no follow up from the government.
The Bat Conservation Trust have identified that HS2 will cause damage to ALL BAT species and in particular the Bechstien’s Bat, who are one of the most rare species. These bats are reliant on ancient woodland, which can’t be replaced as stated in ES (Environment Statement). There is less than 1000 of these Bats in the UK and The Bat Conservation Trust believes that HS2 will cause major damage and issues for these Bats. As well as breaching both the ES and the UK legislation and best practice guidance that protects Bats. The woodland that HS2 plans to damage or destroy dates back to the 1600’s.
1 of 1000 Left In UK
However not only Bat’s will suffer drastically due to HS2. The Barn Owl also looks to face a pretty grime time, as all of them within a 3KM strip between London and The Midlands will be eradicated. As well as breeding pairs within a mile of the tracks, this may result in the death of up to 52 breeding pairs. The Barn Owl Trust also believes that HS2 will cause long term damage to more and more Barn Owls as there isn’t any protection to help prevent Owl-Train collisions and due to destroying their habitat permanently.
Time To Stop HS2!
As you can see a lot of the subjects surrounding HS2 do not quite add up or make much sense at all, with all the arguments for HS2 having a cheaper and more efficient and safer alternative. I don’t see how it can possibly be given the go ahead. The government may tell us its the future of rail travel but we know it’s not as many countries such as Spain and Germany are already moving away from using High Speed Rail Travel. So HS2 is not only a waste of time, effort and money it also shows complete lack of consideration towards thousands of animals and their homes. These animals have no say in this argument and neither do we by the looks of things. However I believe that this will not stop us from trying our damn hardest to fight for them and ourselves.
That’s why you and I must stand up, speak up and fight. Fight against HS2 and not be tricked by the government’s use of smoke, mirrors and propaganda.
Paw For Help 