HS2 Bad For North West

May 02 2012

Dear Editor

The main Lib/Lab/Con Parties continue to give their support to the High Speed 2 Rail plan, which will shave 15 minutes off the London to Birmingham journey…at a cost of £32 billion. But as regards our region, it is apparent that HS2 will affect the North West in a largely adverse manner.

Whilst there will be benefits for travellers using Preston and Wigan North Western stations, travellers from Carlisle, Penrith, Oxenholme, Lancaster and Warrington will have worse services. The benefits that are created, will not be apparent until between 2026 and 2033.And don’t forget that cost of £32bn, which the Government are confident will be stumped up by the private sector.

My worry is that, as always seems to happen, the costs will rise dramatically, the private sector will not contribute as much as anticipated and the taxpayer will pick up the bill for the shortfall.

In UKIP we have the opportunity to provide alternative schemes which involve longer trains using longer platforms on existing routes to handle the increased usage of our rail network. Other schemes such as the 51m Alternative (visit: www.hs2actionalliance.org) are also worthy of consideration and deliver for a much lower cost.

UKIP can benefit here, as we are not tied to the dogma of previous governments who are determined to make this project succeed, whatever the cost to the nation. We can distance ourselves from the other Parties slavish support for HS2 and come up with commonsense, pragmatic alternatives.

Nigel Brown

UKIP in Morecambe.