The company set up to deliver a high speed rail link from London to Birmingham and the north of England has embarked on a campaign to win hearts and minds and swing public opinion in favour of the £43 billion project.
HS2 Ltd is holding board meetings in cities along the planned route rather than London and staged the first session in Birmingham today where members attempted to hammer home the economic benefits that will flow from the new route.
Under the strapline “this is more than just a railway” board members and West Midlands politicians stressed the many advantages that they insist are to be gained from a high speed rail link.
- More than 20,000 construction and engineering jobs will be created in Birmingham and the region and 50,000 jobs along the route.
- Over 2,000 apprentices could be employed in construction-related jobs.
- Over 80,000 permanent jobs in station development areas.
- A high speed railway will ease congestion on the West Coast Main Line between Birmingham and London, enabling more local commuter services to run as well as taking freight off the motorways.
Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham City Council, announced that a strategic board to liaise with HS2 Ltd has been set up by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.
Several project groups will report to the board on key issues including the development of HS2 stations at Curzon Street in Birmingham city centre and at Birmingham International close to the NEC and airport.
Project groups will also examine connectivity issues and jobs and skills.
[...] HS2 board enjoys a day-return trip to Birmingham [...]
Yet no one has noticed the ferocious attacks on Hs2 the minute cross rail 2 is announced! No one seems to moaning about billions more for London while the rest of the country rots
The continued promotion of HS2 as a great economic miracle by HS2 Ltd is unbelievable. They make amazing claims about all the jobs that it will create, yet their own figures show that the with London-Birmingham Phase, the economic benefit created by these jobs is only one sixth of the cost of building and operating HS2. Paying out six quid and getting one quid back is not anyone’s idea of a good return on tax payer’s money.
HS2 might try to to claim there are other economic benefits from time savings and also additional revenue. Unfortunately they have a slight problem of admitting in a Freedom Of Infomration Response that they haven’t finished checking the inputs to the model that would allow them to reliably calculate these things. For the Phase 2 consultation they have just launched, they openly admit that they will not have numbers for these until October this year.
No wonder they are spending a lot of effort on public relations!
Paul,
If this is the beginning of a PR campaign by HS2, they have made a big mistake. Your story starts with ‘a campaign to win hearts and minds and swing public opinion in favour of the £43 billion project’.
The missing factor: our WALLETS.
Why should the ordinary taxpayer support a railway line that is First Class only? Which has an estimated budget that we know will be exceeded. Plus a whole set of assumptions on estimated jobs created. Incidentally how many of the 80,000 are estimated to be in B’ham? If this railway is such a commercial ‘winner” why does it require my money.
Once again B’ham’s “great & good” have fallen for a grand project and trooped off to be “fed & watered”: by a corporate body using my money.
RT @GoHS2 Chamberlain News – 20000 construction/engineering jobs to be created in West Midlands #HS2
Chamberlain News – 20000 construction/engineering jobs to be created in West Midlands #HS2
HS2 board meets in Birmingham to promote project ‘we can’t afford not to do’
@chamberlainfile
“@paulmdale: HS2 board meets….
@chamberlainfile becoming less & less convinced about HS2. Heresy I know.