A protester highlighting the route of a proposed high speed rail line that runs through Lichfield has claimed that the M6 Toll should be a warning to those behind the scheme.
Lizzy Williams from campaign group Stop HS2 visited Lichfield as part of her walk last week.
And after the Campaign for Better Transport claimed that the M6 Toll had been “a costly failure”, she urged Government transport chiefs to think again about the new rail line.
She said:
“The toll road has been a complete failure, just like HS2 will be. It was meant to be good for travellers, good for business, people were meant to have more reliable and faster journeys and it would turn a profit. The reality is that none of this has happened.
“It’s got about half the projected traffic, it’s over-priced and it’s losing money for the operators. They said the same thing about HS1 in Kent. It was meant to have 21 million passengers a year and has just managed a third of that. It’s been running at a loss, they’ve cut services and it’s being sold for a quarter of what it cost to build.
“These are the facts we are desperate to point out to people as they are saying exactly the same things about HS2. Sure these things sound good, but there is absolutely no substance behind the claims.”