HS2 just another vanity project

ACCORDING to senior ministers the HS2 project could be scrapped. Alan Cook, the new chairman of the project, is assessing whether it can be built within its existing budget of £56billion. I am of the opinion that this is another vanity project which is wrecking the livelihood of families and businesses, not to mention the decimation of our environment and loss of farmland.

I for one say that the project cannot be completed within the £56billion budget.

One may ask how I have come to that conclusion, well it is simply that bosses at HST have previously stated that they are considering running fewer services and slower trains in order to save cash. How crazy is that? I made reference to that in the Birmingham Mail Talkback of January 22.

I am just wondering who is actually keeping an eye on cost to date. It has been reported that thousands of trees planted along the High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) route will have to be replaced after saplings were not watered during last summer’s drought.

Two Warwickshire farmers think that up to 80 per cent on their land have died, another farmer from Southam estimated that six thousand, five hundred of the eight thousand trees on his land had died.

A spokesman for HS2 said: “Replacing these plants is more cost effective than transporting significant water quantities to the area, as well as a more ethical use of resources during unreasonable hot weather.”

That said, no one knows what the imponderables will be on such a

big project which will drive up cost over and above the £56billion budget.

Mike Butler