The proposed high speed rail link between London and the north is getting bogged down in controversy nationwide – but a Huddersfield transport expert says it would be a tragedy if the plan was dropped altogether.
Criticism is mounting against the proposed HS2 after it was revealed that costs are spiralling, hundreds of acres of green-belt land will be lost and more than 1,000 buildings are to be demolished.
The results came from an in-depth assessment of the environmental impact of the HS2 route from London to Manchester and Leeds.
Kirklees councillor and railway expert Paul Salveson said he treated the HS2 route with ‘cautious criticism’ and feels that its economic benefits for the north have been exaggerated.
He remains an advocate of high speed railway but has concerns over its speed and how it will connect with local services.
“The way it has been conceived leaves quite a lot of questions,” he said. “It should go to Scotland but it’s going to take 20 years or so to get to Leeds and Manchester. My concern is that it will also suck investment away from the local networks. We still have trains running in and out of Huddersfield that are 30 years old and we should be investing in modern trains now.
“Why do we have to have trains on the HS2 line that can go at 400km an hour? We are a smaller country than France and Germany and they don’t go those speeds there. How would they connect with local services and also if you can travel from Leeds to London in an hour why would businesses in London bother with a branch office in Leeds? The current proposal could actually end up taking investment away from the north.”
He added: “There needs to be far more discussions about HS2 and a scheme that will really benefit the north. We desperately need investment up here now.”
The high-speed rail link supporters say it will bring tens of thousands of jobs to the north by slashing journey times from London to Birmingham in the first phase, then Manchester and Leeds in the second.
But critics have claimed that HS2’s business case does not stack up and opposition to the project is building in Westminster with doubts voiced recently by a number of senior figures.
Earlier this month ministers revised up the scheme’s projected cost from £33bn to £42bn.
Thousands of properties within a mile of the route have already been blighted even though construction of the line is not set to begin until 2017.