Today the public consultation begins on the High Speed 2 rail link from London to the North, and campaigners who live near London are rallying support. The campaigners are mainly those who won’t get direct benefit from the line and are objecting on environmental and economic grounds and claiming the current track can be improved.
Being close to London these groups are getting a lot of publicity and even the BBC on this morning’s Today programme took sides with the opponents.
It is understandable that you wouldn’t want a new rail line building close to your house but the project has national implications such as: shrinking the size of the UK, creating additional capacity and relieving existing track, reducing domestic flights, creating an outlet from the pressure on the South East while bringing the north and midlands onto the pan-European high speed routes.
The government is getting used to people objecting to all their many changes mixing the good with elaborate spurious and exaggerated claims. Sometimes the government hasn’t got it right but in this case there is a lot of support and both major political parties support the line. The main negative is that it is taking much too long.