HS2
By Rosanna Harvey-Crawford
The future? Or the end of the line?
High Speed Rail 2 or HS2 is Europe’s largest infrastructure project – a high speed rail network linking the North of England to London. Following in the footsteps of Germany, France and Spain, the UK is looking to upgrade its rail network. Before Covid-19 hit the news, this seemed like a worthy project for public money as every week brought a fresh news story of rail network disasters and frustrated commuters. However, the project has been notoriously divisive and controversial, and rendered even more so by the fact construction, which was green lighted in April, is continuing in spite of lockdown and because of its cost, with ever-increasing calls that the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Boris Johnson gave the go ahead for HS2 in February, following a government review of the contentious project. There is an absolute wealth of information online about HS2, perhaps to do with the fact the project has been in development for over a decade – it was pioneered by the Labour government in 2009. The project is projected to cost a staggering £106 billion, according to the Oakervee Review. The government line is that it will boost the construction sector, while creating thousands of jobs, particularly for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMEs).
An overview of HS2
Phase 1 will go from London Euston to Birmingham (under construction now) and is estimated to finish 2028-2031.
Phase 2 will have two separate lines, one to Leeds and one to Manchester, projected to finish 2035-2040.
The line will allow the train to reach speeds of 250 mph, and would run as often as 14 times an hour in each direction.
Motivation is to allow increased passenger numbers and take pressure off local services.
Originally, the project was meant to have another phase ‘2b’, which would continue the service onto Liverpool and Scotland, which has since been scrapped.
The Northern Powerhouse, or HS3, was proposed in 2015 by Transport for the North, which would be an east to west service linking Northern cities Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Hull. This would be started once work was finished on HS2.
Why has HS2 taken so long to deliver? The project has been mismanaged and suffered from unrealistic land valuations, as well as being a huge infrastructure project requiring, literally, the movement of roads and rivers (not quite heaven and earth, but still significant). This aspect of the project is one of the most contentious: protests are ongoing around the construction site, and campaigner Chris Packham launched a legal challenge against HS2 in March. The impact on the environment and communities is often downplayed or not referenced by politicians in favour of going ahead with the project.
Some arguments against HS2
Just for Phase 1, London to Birmingham, 400 houses have had to be demolished.
Ancient woodland will be destroyed, and is currently being destroyed – the Woodland Trust estimated 108 ancient woodlands will be lost or damaged due to the project, threatening wildlife and biodiversity. HS2 Ltd had promised to plant replacement trees, but so far have either failed to do so or the trees have been allowed to die.
It is too expensive - before legislation had even been passed to allow it to go ahead, it had cost £1 billion. Link. Public money would be better spent on projects like upgrading broadband across the country, as MP Esther McVey is campaigning for.
Emissions: although said to be a project to reduce emissions, latest figures show that in 120 years of operations, HS2 will be increasing CO2 emissions, not reducing them.
The timeline is too long – after years of delays, there is little confidence that the project will be delivered on time (or even completed), and with the official end year being 2040, this is cold comfort to commuters currently enduring limited and crowded services, particularly in the North of England. The Guardian have produced a comprehensive podcast looking at HS2 and this problem in particular.
The Oakervee Review former deputy Chair stated that instead of HS2, the greatest need was upgrading rail services within regions, particularly in the North.
Concerns it will further contribute to ‘brain drain’ to London: cities already face a shortage of skills with graduates flocking to the capital each year.
After reading and researching HS2 ahead of the general election in 2019, I felt very strongly that the project should not go ahead, and for the first time ever, I wrote to my MP. Having read about the environmental damage the construction was going to cause, I thought it was unbelievable that it would be approved, as well as hypocritical considering the climate commitments the government had made.
I come from a part of Scotland that only in the last few years was re-connected to the rail network – there is one railway line for the whole of the Scottish Borders, which terminates at Tweedbank. I went to university in the Midlands, often taking the train down to London – it is very quick (1 hour 20 minutes from Birmingham) and there are up to 11 trains an hour. Why it is necessary to build another line from London to Birmingham defeats me, as does the decision to begin building HS2 in London, instead of in the North, when London already receives triple Northern England’s transport spending.
Given the current unprecedented situation the country finds itself in due to Covid-19, citizens are once again questioning whether this is the time for an infrastructure project this expensive. This is only compounded by the fact the project also directly contradicts the government’s pledge for Net Zero when considering its predicted emissions and destruction of woodland and biodiversity.
If you would like to support the campaign against HS2, I would recommend looking at the following sources.
If you want to write to your MP, it really is as simple as looking up their contact email on their website – you can search who your MP is through this link.
In times like these, it can feel empowering to take even small steps to help a cause you care about.
