Off the rails: Labour’s alternative HS2 route branded ‘bizarre and nonsensical’

The shadow transport secretary, Labour MP Maria Eagles, on Monday outlined an alternative route for the £32 billion HS2 link from London to Birmingham that would connect to Heathrow Airport and follow parts of the M40 and Chiltern Railway lines.

No official map of the proposed new route has been released, but by following the M40 and Chiltern lines it would run to the south of Warwick, impacting heavily on villages such as Barford, Sherbourne and Shrewley.

Joe Rukin of the Stop HS2 campaign said: “It’s rather bizarre for them to come up with this at this point in time when we are only two months away from a decision and we don’t expect the government to listen to any alternatives.

“Moving the route doesn’t change the fact there’s no business case, no environmental case, and no money to pay for it.

“It wouldn’t stay on one side of the M40, it would keep crossing over. Following the M40 suggests they are thinking about slowing it down. It couldn’t follow the M40 at 225mph - you can’t take bends at that speed.

“Barford and Gaydon would both be hit. If it’s branching off after Warwick then it would have to be on the Barford side and would still impact Balsall Common on the way to Birmingham airport.”

MP for Warwick and Leamington Chris White was “amazed” at the proposal and felt it would just create “even more anxiety and concern”.

He added: “There are a lot of people in the constituency who now really don’t know what is going to happen. People in Barford are showing a great deal of community concern. In my view whether we talk economically, socially, environmentally, HS2 doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Barford resident Ken Hope felt it might not be too bad if it was on the other side of the M40 because “the noise can’t be any worse than it is now”, but added “HS2 is of no benefit to anyone outside Birmingham”.

Another Barford resident Roger Clay added: “A lot of people immediately sprung to the defensive and said we don’t want it anywhere near us. There would be dismay here if it was on our side of the M40. It’s a wait and see thing at the moment, we don’t know enough.”

The proposal would also see tunnelling out of central London, but would be good news for people in Burton Green and Kenilworth who were against it, as it would now pass to the west of them.

Labour town councillor for Warwick West John Holland said: “Andrew Adonis of Labour wanted to do a 20 year consultation to reach a consensus, while the Tories promised to build HS2 within five years in their election campaign, and that is what the people of the Kenilworth area voted for.

“The idea of building on the Chiltern line was in the original scheme, and does have some merit but I’m very concerned about people who live in Barford and Sherbourne. They are already suffering because of the M40.”

Dan Large of the Campaign for HS2 said the new route raised “some fundamental questions”, and asked for more detail on the cost of the new plan, the impact on the newly threatened countryside and the line speed.