Campaigners fighting to stop a high speed rail line cutting through parts of Lichfield are set to lobby the Labour Party for support.
The Stop HS2 group are taking their battle to the party’s Liverpool conference this week in a bid to strengthen their argument that the HS2 scheme should not go ahead.
The campaigners will use a cartoon depicting Conservative Secretary of State for transport Philip Hammond as Santa giving David Cameron a train set to drum home their message, after comments by Mr Hammond that trains are a “rich man’s toy”.
Joe Rukin from Stop HS2, said: “The Labour Party, and the rest of the country need to see behind the spin from those with vested interests and realise that HS2 is simply a vanity project.
“Despite the desperate cuts which will impact everyone, nothing has changed in terms of how wasteful projects are pushed for by big business. The business case from HS2 Ltd shows that they predict business on the railways will have an average salary of £68,000. If that doesn’t show that it’s a fast train for fat cats, or a rich man’s toy, I don’t know what does.”
Campaigners are also hoping to convince Labour politicians that suggestions the north will benefit from Hs2 are wrong.
“Academic after academic has said that there is no evidence that HS2 will do anything about the North-South divide, beside maybe make it worse,” said Mr Rukin. “Fifty years ago, the motorways were meant to cure the divide, but they made it worse. At least the motorways delivered local benefits because they had junctions, just the way normal rail lines which are desperate for the investment HS2 will suck away have stations.
“HS2 is just about providing a better service for the richest in society who travel between London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. With capacity, there is so much which could be done to increase capacity which has been artificially driven down in part due to restrictive practices and fragmentation which have been brought about in the name of competition.
“One of the messages that Labour want to get out of their conference is the need to crack down on vested interests. The Campaign for HSR have an open-top campaign bus with Siemens written on the side and the German train manufacturer has a fringe meeting at the Labour conference extolling the virtues of high speed rail.
“There is a strong lobby from big business for HS2, because they want it and don’t care how much it will cost. We’re meant to all be in this together, but the message from the HS2 plans is more like ‘I’m alright Jack’.”