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# Campaigners claim new report highlights why HS2 should not go ahead
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/campaigners-claim-new-report-highlights-why-hs2-should-not-go-ahead/
- Published: 2012-03-29T07:30:40.000Z
- Updated: 2012-03-29T06:03:20.000Z
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Transport, HS2, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 21:41, News

Campaigners battling against a high speed rail line have claimed a report into a previous scheme shows why the project should not go ahead.

The HS2 route is set to cut through parts of Lichfield and the surrounding villages.

But a new national audit office report into the HS1 rail line – which connects London with the Channel Tunnel – has highlighted a number of issues with that particular route, including lower than anticipated passenger numbers, underestimated construction costs and the total cost exceeding the value of the benefits of reduced journey times.

Margaret Hodge MP, chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “I am yet to be convinced that HS1 will prove to be value for money.

“Yet again we hear that value for money will depend on uncertain benefits which have not been quantified. We will want the department to do all it can to realise the benefits and turn this sorry story round.”

Campaigners fighting against HS2 believe the report and concerns of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee should act as a warning sign to the Government on the latest high speed rail project.

Stop HS2 campaign coordinator Joe Rukin said: “HS1 shows just what we have always suspect will be the case about HS2, it will be an absolute disaster.

“For two years supportershave been citing HS1 as the perfect example of why HS2 will be a success, while completely ignoring the facts. Now it has been proven that HS1 has been a disaster for taxpayers, they have done a complete u-turn and are saying comparing the two is ‘disingenuous’ or like ‘comparing apples with pears’. But in some ways they are right, because what the NAO report shows is that the disaster of HS1 will be dwarfed by HS2.

“With HS1, the Department for Transport failed to see the competition to get across the channel from low-cost airlines, but with HS2 there are other lines people can use, they can drive and most importantly, with the growth of IT over the next 15 years, they might decide there is no need to travel at all.”