Deadline looms for high-speed HS2 rail project

The High Speed Project 2 (HS2) plan involves new high-speed lines between London, Heathrow, and Birmingham to be completed by 2026, with lines eventually being extended to Manchester and Leeds by 2032.

The Government’s preferred route for the 225mph train cuts through the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, before heading through Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

Once completedit will allow trains to travel at more than 200mph and reduce journey times between London and Birmingham to 49 minutes, according to the Department of Transport (DfT).

The government claim the HS2 project “would transform the country’s economic geography,” bringing in £44.3 bn in benefits and £27.2 bn in fairs over a period of 60 years.

It says the first phase alone of a national network would support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs.

A study, carried out by Arup and Volterra, said that investment in a full HSR network would support the creation of 400,000 jobs in eight UK core cities, including Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, and 1 million jobs in total across the cities’ wider urban areas.

Faisal Islam blogs: The Hitman and his high-speed train 

But critics argue that there is little evidence to support the Government’s claims on the economic benefits, as well as the DfT’s argument that the environmental impact will be minimised.

An ‘academic exercise’

Derek Batty from the campaign group HS2 Action Alliance told Channel 4 News the infrastructure plan is “an academic exercise”.

“There is a lot of evidence the government won’t listen to. It’s totally flawed in terms of figures, there are just simply no specifics,” he said.

“Economically it just doesn’t add up. We’re talking about a project that will be finished in 20-odd years, it’s very difficult to envisage the consequences and there’s very little detailed analysis in the plan.”

The campaign group’s economic concerns are echoed by a recent report by think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, which say the Government’s flagship transport project is “a political vanity project” based on “bogus assumptions”.

FactCheck: Compensation for HS2 to go through the roof?
Homeowners' biggest gripe about the HS2 is not its noise levels or potential to ruin countryside views, but what it might do to house prices. Of this, the Department for Transport is well aware, conceding to FactCheck that it hasn’t put a limit on the amount it is willing to pay out in compensation.

But Labour MP Thomas Docherty says compensation costs could spiral. "The channel tunnel came in desperately over budget, and there has been ongoing problems with High Speed 1,” he told MPs earlier this year.

"To look at a small-scale project, the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway, which only involved the reopening of seven miles of track, went from being £20m originally to £77m when it was finally delivered, and compensation cases are still to be resolved. The Airdrie Bathgate project was £40m when it was first mooted and £300m when it was actually delivered."

The DfT introduced the 'Exceptional Hardship Scheme' in December to tackle claims. But by March half the homeowners dotted along the proposed London-Birmingham line still didn’t know if their property would be affected by the route, according to estate agents Knight Frank.

The DfT has so far committed to £10m compensation and estimates the final bill for 2010-11 will rise to £25m. It has waived through just 38 applications for properties with an average worth of £585,000.

Read more from Channel 4 News' FactCheck team

The report said the first five miles of HS2, from London Euston station to Old Oak Common in west London, will add almost 25 per cdent – around £4bn – to the cost of the first phase but would deliver negligible time savings.

Th IEA deputy editorial director Dr Richard Wellings, one of the report’s authors, said: “Its environmental credentials are questionable, its projected passenger figures suspect, and its proposed regenerative effects highly dubious.”

But the Campaign for High Speed Rail said the IEA’s report was based on “weak research.”

Professor David Begg, director of the campaign, said: “I would expect better from an otherwise reputable think-tank than to parrot misinformation and repackage the propaganda of opponents to the project who are clearly motivated by a mixture of small-state ideology and ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ attitudes.”

Read More: Channel 4 News' FactCheck team have been doing their own maths, officiating the spat between the campaign groups here.

Environmental impact

That attitude, Mr Begg says, involves “spurious” claims about the impact on the environment.

The Government insists that HS2 will minimise the impact on the environment by following existing rail or road transport corridors, using deep cuttings
and tunnels, and avoiding sensitive sites wherever possible.

The HS2 Action Alliance group disagreed, it told Channel 4 News that “the government’s environmental impact is nonsense. We are talking about miles and miles of green belt land being devastated here,” campaigner Derek Batty said.

Read the Department of Transport's full HS2 plan here