It’s for the planet.
Via Daily Mail
The Government’s controversial High Speed 2 rail link will be dealt a huge blow tomorrow as MPs demand that the top speed for trains on the line should be slashed by 40mph.
The proposal is just one of a damaging series of criticisms of the £50 billion HS2 project contained in a leaked parliamentary report seen by The Mail on Sunday.
The slower speed would add ten minutes to the predicted journey time from London to Birmingham, making it only 25 minutes quicker than current trains.
Critics already say that the project is a waste of money and the marginal savings on journey times do not justify the enormous cost.
The Environmental Audit Select Committee’s findings come just weeks before a crucial Commons vote on legislation that must be passed to give the HS2 scheme the go-ahead. The MPs’ report says:
The maximum speed on the line should be cut from 225mph to 185mph to reduce carbon emissions.
Environmental surveys on the impact on ancient woods and wildlife have not been carried out on nearly half the land along the route.
The scheme’s calculations for its ‘biodiversity offsetting’ plans are not comprehensive and could endanger rare plants and bat species.
HS2 must ringfence a separate budget for environmental protection and monitor measures for 60 years.
The MPs’ criticisms came as campaigners from the HS2 Action Alliance issued an expert report claiming HS2’s figures on electricity consumption and carbon footprints are ‘highly biased’.
The Alliance says the real carbon impact of Phase 1 from London Euston to Birmingham will be more than double the official estimate and equivalent to the emissions of 1.44 million homes, or 5.4 per cent of households in the UK.