CAMPAIGNERS hoping to sway public opinion in favour of the proposed £17bn high speed rail link between Birmingham and London have launched a new poster campaign as the public consultation into the project enters its last few days.
The campaign features the messages: ‘Bullring to boulevard in less than three hours’ and ‘22,000 jobs arriving in the heart of the UK’.
The posters feature on a billboard at the National Exhibition Centre and on bus routes and at Metro stations across Birmingham and the Black Country.
Centro chairman, Cllr Angus Adams, said: “The idea of the posters is to highlight the real benefits that High Speed Rail brings to our region. HS2 is tremendous news for our region, bringing jobs and creating economic growth.
“HS2 will bring 22,000 much-needed jobs to the West Midlands. HS2 will also slash journey times to the UK’s major cities and Europe.”
Campaigners claim HS2 will also release capacity on overcrowded existing lines improving local and regional services in the West Midlands.
The proposed HS2 route links London with Birmingham, before branching north in a Y-shape to Leeds and Manchester. The public consultation closes on Friday.
Birmingham City Council Cabinet member for Transport, Environment and Regeneration, Cllr Tim Huxtable, said: “High Speed 2 will bring great benefits to the region and all who live here, creating jobs, investment, increased tourism and faster links with both the UK and Europe beyond.”
He urged people to participate in the consultation to ensure the views of Birmingham’s business community and its residents were represented in Whitehall.
Transport Minister Philip Hammond anxious stress the benefits of the scheme – and counter opposition to the project – travelled to Manchester to drum up support in the finals days of the consultation. He said HS2 was “a vitally important project for the future of the North West”.
He said that some of the most vociferous and well-organised campaigning was coming from opponents of the scheme – particularly those whose land runs closest to the new stretch of track in the south of England, but argued the debate needed to be taken to the whole country.
“The broader communities who will benefit – the populations of cities in the Midlands, Scotland and the North – do not identify themselves quite so readily and so easily,” he said.
“Our job through the business community and the civic leaderships in the major cities is to get across to the man in the street how much this means for the future competitiveness of the UK’s economy.”
He said the first phase of the scheme from London to Birmingham would deliver £44bn of economic benefits and lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs. He also argued the project’s cost of £2bn a year was approximately the same that was currently being spent on London’s Crossrail scheme, so is affordable.
“We’ve looked at the alternatives including upgrading or widening existing track. But that would cost as much money as building a new railway and would cause years of delays,” he said.
