High Speed HS2:

If you are like us and are anti the proposed HS2 High-speed rail network between London and Birmingham then you DO need to read this article and take notice and further more take immediate action to voice your opinions and sign the petition.

Now to clear the air, we are not anti this new rail network purely on the basis of the local trails that will get ruined. No. We have far more reasons, worries, concerns and questions about the proposed project as to why we are anti the HS2...

• This proposed network will cost a minimum of £11.9bn in a recession. How can the Government justify it?
• The 'supposedly protected' Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty will be desecrated, even though this area should under law be safe from being destroyed to make way for such industry and travel networks
• The HS2 will save a maximum of 20 minutes over current rail links between London and Birmingham
• 7 years of construction chaos with 24/7 work
• Deafening noise across the Aylesbury Vale and beyond from the 250mph trains running 19 hours a day at a frequency of 36 trains per hour
• Local and National travel disruption throughout the seven year build time
• No local advantages to the HS2 (no local rail stops, no local jobs created etc)
• Huge Viaducts will sit 66 feet above ground and will be as wide as a football pitch
• Project bound to go well over budget as per similar previous schemes and projects. A good example is Edinburghs new City - Airport Tram way - five years late being finished (and still not finished) and four times over budget.
• Local home values cut by at least 30% and some homes unsaleable
• Local Authority work cancelled. Local constituencies in the Country will have £54 million LESS to spend on local infrastructure. A prime example would the be the postponement of the completion of Aylesbury's new Waterside Project.
• Government unsure how to pay for the project. Will it be us tax payers?
• RP2 not HS2. Rail Package 2 is an alternative solution to HS2 and would see upgrades to the West Cost Mailine. This would be at a cost of £2bn instead of £11.9bn and would obviously just be an upgrade to current rail networks and not have the impacts of all of the above comments. RP2 would provide all the capacity, is cheaper, can be delivered more quickly and is better value for money
  
   

RP2 not HS2:

There is another option to the proposed HS2. RP2: Rail Package 2 is an upgrade to the West Coast Mainline development for the Department for Transport (DfT) as an alterative to the High Speed 2 (HS2) for the London to West Midlands phase. But DfT hid and misrepresented the facts:

• RP2 provides all the capacity DfT say is needed and has less crowding
• RP2 is cheaper than HS2 (£2bn net costs not £11.9bn - on DfT's 2010 figures)
• RP2 can be delivered more quickly (not waiting to 2026)
• RP2 takes a risk free incremental approach (its not all or nothing)
• RP2 is better value for money (50% better than HS2 on DfT's figures)
• What would you choose: RP2 or HS2?

If you want Wendover and The Chilterns (as well as other areas of the UK of course) destroyed forever, then sit back and do nothing. If you want to protect Wendover, surrounding Towns and Villages and The Chilterns, then please take action now.

The deadline for all comments and petitions is 29th July 2011 so please act now. Please fill in the online petitions via the websites below and also please write to your local MP (see notes below).

More information and Petitions:

Voice your opinion online at www.highspeedrail.dft.gov.uk

Want to help? Visit www.wendoverhs2.org

More information on the business case and alternatives to HS2 then see www.hs2aa.org

More information on the overall HS2 campaign then see www.stophs2.org

You can also write to our local (Aylesbury Vale) MP. Write to David Lidington MP and Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport, both at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA. Letter guidance can be found online at WendoverHS2