A couple of years ago, I was driving through Stoneleigh Village, when I noticed a lot of the houses had suddenly gone up for sale. I remember thinking it was a bit strange, but I never really thought anything else about it, and the thought quickly left my mind. Just a few weeks ago I was out with my dog, Buster. His favourite walk is across a beautiful stretch of land just outside of Stoneleigh Village, with lots of woods and a big river that he swims in on hot days. On our route around the woods I noticed a sign reading “HS2 Crosses Here” I remembered hearing about a High Speed Rail service that was being proposed a few years ago, so when I got home I had a quick look online.
HS2 is a High Speed Railway line that is proposed to be built between Birmingham and London. The talked-about budget for this is £52 billion pounds, with phase one (Birmingham to London) supposed to be complete by 2026 and phase two (which would consist of stations in Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds) due for completion in 2033. I found lots of articles online, all giving facts and opinions on HS2, however none of them seem too positive. The general gist that I got from reading these were, do we really have this money to spare? Especially with the recent disability cuts that are happening and getting such a bad reaction it’s a bit of a liability spending over £52 billion on a railway line that we already have. In my opinion, the money could be better spent improving the system we already have and make existing train travel more reliable. One article I read stated that only “1% of the British public see HS2 as a spending priority”, and “43% of respondents said that HS2 was their lowest priority of all the options tested.” (Stop HS2 Writer, Joe, 2016: Online) Furthermore it’s said that only 24% of the British public support HS2. So my burning question is WHY is HS2 still something that’s being discussed? More recent headlines on The Guardian include “Reducing HS2 train speed would cut emissions and noise, report finds” and “HS2 denies claims that its trains are at risk of derailing at top speeds” – I personally find these headlines laughable, reducing the speed of the HIGH SPEED rail to cut noise? Why not cut out the whole project?
As a result of my research I am now questioning (more than ever) the current governments priorities as it’s clear they’re failing to see that real lives are being affected by the rich minority population of the UK wanting to get to work in London ten minutes quicker – consequently, people are wanting to sell their homes to move away, spend money on things that are just unjustifiable and personally this bothers me as poor Buster won’t have his favourite walk anymore due to the greed of others.
Here’s an article written by Patrick Barkham as he travels the route of HS2, meeting the people it will directly effect: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/17/hs2-the-human-cost-of-britains-most-expensive-rail-project
And here’s a petition to stop HS2 and to spend the money on something that is proven more useful, a national long term flood defence strategy. At 10,000 signatures the government will respond to the petition and at 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament. Every signature will help!https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/117184
– Sophie
References:
Sophie West Media 