High Speed 2 (HS2)

The Daily Telegraph has an article on the above subject in which it mentions the proposed routes past Birmingham, map here. I have posted many times on this subject, beginning in August last year; here, here, here, here, here, here, and finally, here.

In each of those posts I maintained that the Coalition government was being economical with the truth, namely that this line was in fact one required by the European Union under their integrated transport policy. One or two commenters derided my views, yet we now find that the proposed 'Y' extension of HS2 is exactly that which appears on the EU TEN-T's website and to which I have linked in the aforementioned posts.

Much debate has taken place about the need to address the North/South divide and whether in fact this line will do just that. It is about time that the Coalition, Cameron and Hammond 'came clean' on the subject of HS2 and admitted that it was an EU scheme and that they did not have much choice in the matter. The statement issued by the DfT spokeswoman is no more than government 'spin' with the promise of further public consultations. As with most public consultations that governments carry out, it will not matter what the public say - the decision will be taken by those with vested interests, namely the politicians in the UK and their 'crat - or should that be crap - masters in Brussels.