Latest Rail News

03.10.12

Anti-HS2 campaigners demand their own review after West Coast shambles

Cheryl Gillan, the anti-HS2 Buckinghamshire MP who was sacked from the Cabinet in last month’s reshuffle, has demanded a review of the HS2 business case in the light of the West Coast franchising fiasco.

She said the “significant technical flaws” in the WCML franchise competition, which was spectacularly halted last night by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, showed that the HS2 evaluation process needed to be reconsidered.

She is asking the DfT for an “immediate review”.

Other anti-HS2 campaigners jumped on the news to back their case: Cllr Steve Bowles tweeted: “If DfT got projections on WCML wrong for 15 year foresight how can we trust HS2 figures for 25 years?”

Another said: “I'm absolutely gobsmacked at the mess with statistical analysis they have made with WCML. No one can trust HS2 now.”

Tell us what you think – have your say below or email us directly at [email protected] 

(Image of Cheryl Gillan with David Cameron at Cardiff station in May 2010: courtesy The Prime Minister’s Office, Crown Copyright. Used here under a Creative Commons licence.)

Comments

Simon Hope   24/10/2012 at 10:21

anti-hs2 people seem to be jumping on any ' band- waggon ' with no evidence to link WCML with HS2 financial and economic procedures. They seem to be getting desperate, trotting out increasingly misleading and inaccurate information and facts, as has been the case since the project was first highlighted in 2010.

Steve   14/12/2012 at 08:49

Why are we investing in such old technology? China, Germany and the US are now deploying Maglev trains which are not only faster that the proposed Diesel trains but quieter and have far less environmental impact from pollution and maintenance. It seems we are investing in VHS when DVD has been invented.

Colin   14/12/2012 at 09:02

The proposed trains aren't diesel Steve, they're run off overhead electric lines. See: www.hs2.org.uk/assets/x/77048

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