So, the High Speed Train (HST) has now been given the go-ahead by the Government despite growing opposition, and not only from track-side residents.  Is it really such a brilliant idea?  It’s a bit silly to start by saying: “I’m opposed to it because the money could have been better spent on, say, …building more carriages, laying additional track etc and so improving the present network… because it’s not as if we already have this money in a vault of the Treasury waiting patiently for a suitable use.

 In fact as a Nation we are practically bankrupt.  So why?  Well, it would be a spectacular project, which Governments like to pursue so they’ll be remembered.  After all we’ll remember Gordon Brown for building all the schools and hospitals for all the thirty years we’ll be paying for them.  As we write this Chancellor George Osbourne is seeking Chinese money for investment in UK Infrastructure.

I like to think of HST2 as similar to Concorde in that it was a super aeroplane which the rich and famous enjoyed enormously.  No one else could afford it.  In fact you could refer to a High Speed Train as “Concorde on Wheels”; an impressive project, costing a fortune, and a dead end development.  At least Concorde was built by French and British companies.  Does the UK have the ability to build a High Speed Train at present?

 John Coleman, Chairman, UKIP Bromsgrove.

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