Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• Don, Wolverhampton, UK

  WE NEED A COUNTER-PETITION, IN SUPPORT OF HS2.
  
  The majority of people against HS2 are wealthy land-owners. There is a much larger group of people who not only want HS2 but need it. Britain is dying. HS2 is a life-line for jobs, industry and travel.
  
  Don't pretend the argument is about money, nobody petitioned to stop the Olympic village or Wembley and look how much that will have cost!

• Peter Davidson, Alderley Edge, NW.England

  @James Woods
  
  Don't get stressed out - that would be the same Susan (Beck?) posting grossly inaccurate exaggerations on other sites discussing this topic
  
  "3, For £34Billion you can go to ….err Birmingham (if you are in London to start with!)- great!"
  
  Actually, Susan, the budgeted cost for the London>Birmingham phase (Lichfield to be precise) is £17bn - but why let little things like facts get in the way of some good old scaremongering!

• Dean Rodrigues, London, UK

  What will be hilarious is in 20 years when the line is hopefully built and so many who have been successful in complaining and getting the line redirected away from their towns will instead be complaining that they're not connected to the High Speed network, complaining that their trains are too crowded and too slow, and complaining that they have to take on the scrum of Heathrow to get out the country (a la Maidstone on HS1).
  
  Meanwhile, those with a tad of foresight will be getting from Birmingham to Cologne in a whisk, and the west coast mainline at 6pm on a Friday will no longer resemble Glastonbury.

• Andrew, Brisbane, Australia

  Surely the cost of this project would be better spent upgrading the ECML, MML, GWR, GEML, and completing the upgrades to the WCML. Running four tracks where there were previously two, electrification to the extremities, eliminating flat junctions, and taking the line speeds upto 160 mph. Then run the latest Pendolino trains ordered by Swiss Railways. The time differential would be minimal over HS2, it would benefit more people, and we would have 5 high speed main lines, running into city centres on the classic lines. Plus the Pendolino trains can use the tilting ability out to Aberdeen, Penzance etc.

• James Woods, Norwich, Norfolk

  I can't believe you would even publish the comment from "Susan" when most of the points are blatantly wrong, 10-15 mins off the journey time to Birmingham? Only two stops, one at each end? Nuclear Power adding to increased CO2, I think she needs to go back to school. Obviously she wants to drive everywhere in her 4x4.
  [We do not censor comments with which we do not necessarily agree.—Editor]

• Patrick, London, England

  HS2 is one of the best investments this country can make and I am so glad the government is finally taking it seriously. It should have been built years ago!

• Susan, N Warwickshire, UK

  There is no credible evidence to support the claim that HS2 will "spread economic benefit throughout the UK". On the contrary all the academic evidence that I have seen would suggest that the only winners of high speed trains are the major cities it runs into - HS2 will suck thousands of jobs out of the regions AND impact negatively on the local economy. Not to mention divide a nation when the concrete runway is built devastating communities, natural habitat, areas of outstanding natural beauty, businesses, farms, livestock, lives and tens of thousands of people who will get all the blight and none of the so called 'benefit' whatsoever.
  
  Who do we believe? Hammond has been liberal with the truth when he tells the media the 'only people who are opposed to HS2 are those on the route' - Coventry city Council have unanimously opposed HS2 - they are not on the route. Chris White MP has come out against HS2 and he/his constituents are not effected by HS2, I am also personally aware that Hammond has received mail from members of the public opposed to HS2 up in Yorkshire and from other areas - why is Hammond telling porkies?
  
  Hammond and Cameron arrogantly ignore the point that it is precisely because people from all walks of life and politics have got interested in the HS2 scheme, that so much is now understood about the plan’s flawed justification.
  
  Regardless of where the ‘anti’ HS2 brigade live, we have them to thank for making the rest of us aware that this proect assumes:
  
  1, More people will travel in the future then today – There is no reason to assume this, quite the opposite once the governments ‘broadbanding’ of the nation is complete
  2, People will pay double to save 10 -15 minutes off a journey from Birmingham to London – Except if the train is delayed or if their distance from home to the new station is not longer.
  3, For £34Billion you can go to ….err Birmingham (if you are in London to start with!)- great!
  4, We won't care if childhood Leukeamia rises owing to the electrification imact
  5, We don't mind if the planet gets 1 more nuclear power station to plug it into. Hmm – lets just re-visit that Kyoto agreement again!
  6, We will use a train (HS2) that goes nowhere - unless of course you want an airport shuttle service .
  
  Of course people not living on the route mostly couldn’t care less about who’s garden gets trashed when it is built but will they care when, as this government fritters away £34Billion, they get burgled more often because we can’t afford to have police on the beat, the roads degrade because of less money to support maintenance programmes leading to more pot holes and less gritting during winter, when more troops die in Afghanistan due to poor equipment and not enough helicopters, when the shores of the UK become plagued with risk thanks to coast guard cutbacks, when the emergency services realise they no longer have the skills, capability, equipment or resources to deal with a high speed rail crash or derailment that happens on raised up viaducts, in deep tunnels or in open fields and countryside miles from anywhere - savage public sector cuts today will seriously compromise safety capability in the future......or when our children dare not go to university for fear of the debt they incur leavng a void for well educated foreigners to fill the gap.
  
  If that isn’t enough, at the end of it all, having made the worst investment of the millenium, the government of the day will then be forced to sell HS2 to a foreign company for 10% of what UK tax payers paid to build it just like HS1 because it runs at a loss. Why? cos the justification then, as now, was lamentable.
  
  The Condems would be well advised to take serious the wider concerns raised. Those living along the route are leading a bow wave of public opinion in opposition to HS2. It is these bigger, national and international issues that will hopefully bury HS2 - or at the very least kick it into the political long grass.