Campaigners have called for HS2 to be axed immediately – with the land already used returned to nature.
Questions have been raised over the long-term future of the route north of Lichfield, with speculation suggesting the leg to Manchester will not go ahead as planned.
It means the controversial high speed line, which cuts through Lichfield and the surrounding villages, could end in Handsacre.
Penny Gaines, chair of the Stop HS2 campaign group, said:
“It’s time the government put this white elephant out of its misery and cancelled HS2 in full.
“The remaining section between the London suburbs and Birmingham clearly has no economic case and is causing huge environmental damage.
“There was never a good case for HS2 to start off with, and commuting patterns have massively changed over the last decade, especially with the pandemic.
“Video-conferencing and other digital technologies – which we have said were an alternative right from the start – have had a much faster growth than expected, while construction costs increases have far out-stripped inflation, making the HS2 economic case even weaker than before.
“HS2 should be cancelled in its entirety as soon as possible.”
Penny Gaines, Stop HS2
The potential early termination of the line has led to Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant questioning whether or not a HS2 station could be built in the city.
He said:
“So far, Lichfield District has suffered all of the pain with none of the gain.
“I am now beginning to wonder whether there is now an argument for Lichfield to have its own station if it is now going to be the northern end of the high-speed line.
“The siting of the station could not be adjacent to the existing Lichfield Trent Valley station, but might be where the current HS2 site is placed just south of where the line tunnels underneath the A38 – there could be sufficient space for car parking and easy links to the A38.”
Michael Fabricant
Complete shambles from start to finish and it’s a shame that all the HS2 supporting Muppets from the different political parties can’t be held to account for the wasted billions of pounds and the destruction of the environment and wildlife on a huge scale.
Follow the money at all times. Anyone, even Tories with a nodding relationship with finances could see that this project was designed to be cut as it “progressed”. I believe that it was part of the overall plan, promise everything and deliver in the south. Sadly, voters are easily fooled and The Liar was good at it. As a Mancunian living in Lichfield I fully understand how the North believes that is it constantly overlooked by successive governments. I agree with Andy Street, there’s a huge opportunity being lost here but this has never been a government of vision so I expect a fudge. Sunak will probably be out by Xmas anyway.
This indecision has been going on for more than 3 full weeks now. Heaven help us when the next major decision comes up. This Govt is impotent, spending more time fighting internally than looking after the public who are paying them to act responsibly.
I would think that Sunak fully intends to cancel the northen leg, but dare not say so while he’s still in Manchester at the Tory conference. As it stands, the whole project has turned out to be a massive waste of time and money, not to mention the havoc it has wreaked in this area. If the sole ambition of it is to run from Birmingham to Old Oak Common, it really should be cancelled before billions more is wasted on it. It seems to me that it has suffered from ‘the British disease’ of poor planning, incompetent management and lazy workers from the start.
HS2 is a massive white elephant that should have been cancelled years ago. The money would be far better spent improving local, regional and east-west connections.
It is a true irony that at a time when we should be prioritising rail travel as the least polluting form of public transport, this whole project has been such a disaster. Other countries are way ahead of us, and are probably laughing their heads off at our incompetence. If the project is not to be completed as originally envisaged, there really is little justification in carrying on with it. There are certainly plenty of other things that we could spend the extortionate amount of money on that would benefit far more people. No-one in government has had the courage to admit this and make the right decisions- Sunak’s dithering on this has been pathetic.
Whatever you think of HS2 I don’t think the people working on it are lazy. Many will now fear for their jobs given the formal announcement of the cancellation. There were also lots of training and apprenticeships linked to HS2 which will be affected. Gross generalisations and snide comments unfortunately seem to be a growing problem with some commentators.
I apologise for any offence caused by my comment on lazy workers. On reflection, it was a snide generalisation. I’ll go away and shut up now.