Please spare the time to read this – your future prosperity is at stake!
Birmingham City must be well connected with the outside world to grow and prosper.
This was the theme and strong message of the Transport Summit 2011 meeting held at the Council House last Tuesday. It was unanimously echoed in speeches by key people in the Council and businesses serving the city.
Undecided about the merits of HS2 before the meeting, I left with no doubt that the future wealth of the City depends on advanced transport links to London, Continental Europe and the wider World.
Most important is easy connectivity with the developing key states of the wider world – China, India, Japan and others as they develop.
But also, Britain must shrink geographically in the eyes of key foreign governments and business investors. Getting to central Birmingham must be easier than getting to central London to encourage foreign (and UK) investors and industrialists. This is very possible!
How to achieve this?
Well, two things are essential:
- Birmingham Airport expansion to serve much more of the world
- the HS2 (High Speed Rail) link to London and beyond
Why HS2? Well, it will shrink Britain! A straight forward, no change no hassle journey from the capitals of neighbouring EU states is key. The planned 49 minutes extra timetable time by HS2 to reach Birmingham from the London stop, in practice disappears, due to the proximity of the Birmingham stop to business and commercial centres and the ease and speed of movement to them.
Local transport improvements in the pipeline will make Birmingham easy to live in and travel to work, and hence increase desirability of investment in new businesses.
This will make Birmingham the city of first choice in future over London.
Be aware of the opposition to HS2
The opponents of HS2 (mainly rich and influential people living along the proposed HS2 corridor) are already well organised and funded***.
There needs to be an equally vociferous movement for the proponents.
Typically, people against an idea are more energetic than those in favour.
The government is in favour of HS2!
So have your say
The Department for Transport is consulting the population.
Read the Government’s case for HS2 and have your say. Click on
https://highspeedrail.dft.gov.uk/have-your-say
Geoff Caine
*** In one village alone during a single evening a call for financial donations to oppose HS2 realised £100,000!
www.BrumCityCentre.com 
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As to capacity from Birmingham HS2 might just like to note that they don’t plan (Economic case – Appendix 1) any trains from Birmingham to Edinburgh when there are currently 3 tph and no trains to Glasgow when there is currently 1 tph. They only plan 1 train per hour to Newcastle when there are currently 2 and only 2 TPH to Manchester when there are currently 3
The current services are taken from the online journey planner
The WCML RUS predicts the greatest percentage growth in demand from Birmingham Northwards
If you wish to see how HS2 will benefit the whole of the UK please visit http://www.YesToHS2.co.uk which is an “independent non-governmental campaign group set up to promote High Speed Rail in the UK and the benefits both economical and environmentally that it will bring.”.
People need to stand in support of this project which is not a done deal as far as the government is concerned. Please show your support for HS2.
The statement “are already well organised and funded” is in fact correct, as much as £150,000 has been pledged by various councils so far, using tax payers money to fight HS2!
Virgin’s pendolino trains could be running between London and Birmingham at higher speeds, only 10 mins behind HS2. Virgin says this would happen in a shorter time frame than HS2.
Such improvements to inter city services will benefit Birmingham now rather than 15 years down the line.
Also Virgin drop off people in Birmingham city centre. HS2 requires a further 20 min walk from Curzon Street, unless some transport link is built at further expense. Even such a link would still take a further 5 mins travel time.
Arguments for HS2 are focused on capacity issues. If investment in trains is done correctly this would not be an issue for several decades, if at all. In addition train demand will fall off when the Government eventually invests in speeding up the UK broadband network.
Investment is required in local transport and commuting lines, as shown by the recent Dispatches report.
Investment in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester etc and not London will help improve prospects for those outside London.
Travelling on HS2 will be too expensive for the average commuter. Personally I cannot see how is this going to help bring wealth to Birmingham?
Regarding the environment you should note the opposition when the Government wanted to transfer our woodlands into private ownership. Well under HS2 several areas of special scientific interest and areas of outstanding natural beauty will be destroyed. So where’s the environmental impact assessment to support HS2?
Even the politicians have eventually accepted HS2 will be carbon neutral.
So vociferous opposition happens when the majority of taxpayers are lent on to pay for what looks like a white elephant.
This is an incredible piece of propaganda which encourages demand for more unnecessary unsustainable travel at the expense of local connectivity . It also attempts to discredit anyone who opposes HS2 for all the valid reasons for doing so. The Green Party, Wildlife Trusts, CPRE to name a few all oppose. The figures you quoted on fundraising are quite frankly lies. I have been leading the campaign for over a year against HS2 and am on a low income, live in a 2 bedroom rented house (ex local authority), have disabilities and am not directly affected by HS2. Are you providing your neighbourhood an objective article? No it is an extremely misleading one. I would encourage everyone to look a the detail of the proposal and decide for themsleves whether it is worth it. The link to the Dft website gives details of the consultation and roadshows. You can visit http://www.stophs2.org for alternative views or google the subject. There is a Transport Select Committee Inquiry to be held shortly scrutinising the economic case and a Westminster Hall debate next Thursday people may wish to follow.
For me, there has never been any doubt that high speed train services are essential to us throughout the UK. The regret is that we didn’t start them sooner.
Overseas visitors, particularly those from Europe, must gain the impression that people living in the South East of England don’t *want* them to get to the rest of the country!
Indeed, the vociferous opposition could be another form of (possibly subconcious) metropolitan superiority. “Birmingham – where’s that!”
Well – Birmingham certainly matters to us!
David Foster