Open Letter

Time to drop HS2

SIR – A fatal motion has been tabled in the House of Lords at the third reading of the HS2 Bill. For many of us who have campaigned against the project for years, this is a final opportunity to put this over-budget, under-delivering project to an end once and for all.

Infrastructure spending is vital for our economy, especially in a post-Brexit era when the Government has made clear its aim to build a dynamic, bold new country – where we embrace the future and stand tall through pioneering investment in science and technology.

But HS2 does not deliver any of that. Our country stands at a crossroad: a choice between setting off towards investment in essential improvements that regional transport connections desperately need, relieving the plight of the thousands forced to stand on trains across the country each day, and investing in new technology such as the 750mph Hyperloop and driverless cars – or ploughing ahead with a London-centric high-speed line with a dreadful business case, which connects just four city centres and will be unaffordable for most.

HS2 is likely to reach a cost of over £90 billion – £1,700 for every single adult in Britain – as well as causing unprecedented environmental damage. It is clear that the time has come to cancel it in favour of our country’s true priorities. 

With current transport links already at breaking point across Britain, an NHS that is lurching from crisis to crisis, much of the country lacking decent broadband and mobile connections, and a budget deficit that still stands at £68 billion, HS2 is the wrong project at the wrong time.

Jeremy Paxman

Stanley Johnson

Ruth Lea

John O’Connell 
Chief Executive, The TaxPayers’ Alliance

Tim Montgomerie

Simon Heffer 

Sir Christopher Foster

Cllr Peter Box (Lab)
Leader, Wakefield Council

Cllr Nick Rose (Con)
Former Leader, Chiltern District Council

Roger Salmon
Former Director, Passenger Rail Franchising

Jonathan Tyler

Professor Stephen Gage

Tim Pharoah
Living Transport

Neale Upstone
Technical Director, Ecco Solutions Ltd

Rosalind Todhunter
Mid Cheshire Against HS2

Professor Leslie Sklair

Anna Semlyen

Stephen Stretton
Co-founder, Rethink HS2

Countryside Alliance

Stop HS2

Hilary Wharf, HS2 Action Alliance

Yorkshire Against HS2