UK: Campaigners Get up Steam to Fight £32bn Railway Project

With the backing of all three major political parties you might assume plans to build a high-speed rail network are welcomed by all.

Yet when the Government announced the detailed route of the first stage running from London to Birmingham, a sizable campaign opposing it sprang up.

In part, it is driven by people who believe the line will ruin landscape near their homes but the campaign has also won support from other political and economic groups.

With details of the route serving Derby set for publication by the end of 2011, opponents have now issued a warning for people here - when you realise the real implications you might want to fight it too.

Penny Gaines, the media director of StopHS2, said: "When the plans for the East Midlands come out I would strongly urge people there to see how they are affected.

"Those whose homes are directly affected will look most closely and the more you look at the plans the more you see the flaws - the Green Party, the Taxpayers' Alliance and the Adam Smith Institute have all spoken out against them."

Ministers want to build a network called High Speed 2 (HS2), running from London to Birmingham in the initial phase. The network would then split, with one arm heading north west to Manchester and a second running through the East Midlands to Leeds.

Construction is to begin in 2017, with the first trains running south of Birmingham by 2025 and the rest of the network operational by 2033.

The Government argues the network is needed because demand for inter-city rail travel in the UK is increasing.

Data from the HS2 Ltd, the body set up by ministers to produce network proposals, suggests long-distance intercity rail travel is growing by 5% annually.

With the costs of road and air travel likely to rise, ministers argue, only a new rail line can deliver the extra capacity needed - plus they claim it will reduce the need for air and road travel, reducing carbon emissions.

Building the equivalent conventional lines would cost about 90% of the price of HS2, they say, but would deliver 33% less of the economic benefits.

Plus, a high-speed line would mean long-distance travellers were removed from conventional routes like the Midland Main Line, meaning passengers on those routes would experience fewer delays and less crowded trains.

In the meantime, Derby passengers using the superfast network would see their journey times to key destinations slashed - London Euston in around an hour, down from 90 minutes to St Pancras at the moment.

And because the network would link with other new routes under development, like the Crossrail scheme joining London and the South East, other destinations also become much closer.

Travellers from the East Midlands high-speed stop would be able to reach Heathrow in under an hour and other key places in the capital - the financial district at Canary Wharf for example - much more quickly.

That would all allow firms in Derby to access new markets and bring more jobs within commuting distance for residents.

The Government points to the Spanish city of Lleida, which managed to gain significant new investment from Microsoft and other hi-tech companies after it got a highspeed rail stop.

Graham Nalty, who runs audio cable firm Black Rhodium from the Derwent Business Centre, in Clarke Street, says HS2 would be a big boost.

"Every minute saved in travelling is a minute that can be spent with a customer or making business calls," he said. "I recently used the train to visit our distributor in Germany and it would make doing those sorts of trips for me and my staff much easier, as well as getting to the extremities of the UK in Brighton or Plymouth for example, by cutting the time to get to London.

"But it would also mean that trade would pick up between Derby and London, in Birmingham and also further north.

"Linking it to Heathrow would also be very helpful, because a lot of the countries where our international distributors are only have direct flights to that airport."