HST2 (High Speed Train 2) Yes or No?

HST2 (High Speed Train 2) Yes or No?

Yes (FOR) =

1. Arrive in Birmingham 15 minutes sooner!
2. Providing further employment in Birmingham.
3. Further employment on the network railway.
4. Relieve 3% of traffic from Motorway network linking London to Birmingham.
5. Fewer stops en-route to destination.
6. Paving the way for additional High Speed service to Manchester then on to Scotland further alleviating traffic from main roads by 3%.
7. Better and cleaner for the environment!

No (AGAINST) =

1. Arriving in Birmingham 15 minutes sooner will also apply to those travelling to London.
2. Beautiful countryside, villages and homes spoiled, demolished, by additional route.
3. The railway will only be employing minimal staff quotas for the two suggested stops. 
4. The traffic reduced from the motorways will be condensed onto the roads near the stations.
5. The modern High Speed Trains does use power and fuel !
6. The percentage of traffic that may be taken off the motorways and roads can not be equated.

No amount of compensation and compulsory purchase can recompense the loss of countryside, wildlife therein, of England's landscape tarnished by another 'white elephant'.

1. Travel time saving  15 minutes off the already established service, does this really mean anything? After all, more and more office workers, are working on the commuter trains travelling into work (whether it be London or Birmingham) as it is and working from home. Will businesses really being using this High Speed Train to ship their employers from Birmingham - London, London - Birmingham?
2. What additional employment will actually be made by this additional High Speed Train service?
3. How many staff will actually be employed for this new railway line and to run the InterCity 125 trains?
4. Motorway traffic will still be heavy even if 3% is redirected through using HS2 route in actual fact the road infrastructure will need to be reassessed to cope with the additional traffic expected at the new stations. Further upheaval, demolition, of the countryside.
5. No doubt the plans have secretly been passed by the government and any opposition will just be politely listened to and not acted upon. The appeasing meetings held are in place to give the appearance of caring in the community, decisions have already been made.
6. Lesson should be learnt from the High Speed Train (HST1) in Kent; which also was going to provide a service that would improve travel all round; roads, railways, motorways. Please note that there has been a financial loss (blamed on the weather and the country in recession!). The expected and proposed usage has not come into fruition any business would realise that working at such a loss does not warrant committing to another substantial amount of money in a similar project.
7. How clean is the new high speed train? It is not pulled by horse so must be fuelled considerably by another source?
8. With relation to the finances proposed to fund the HST2 with a country that is supposed to be billions in debt and in a recession how can we possibly afford this additional expense?

h.1) Money is, from what I can gather, already 'given', by the government, to the railway network annually to retain a 'service'. A service that is not up to a standard fit for animals let alone fee paying customers. Often at peak time standing room only, degrading those who have been charged. Perhaps standing room only should be given free to the passengers!   

h.2) Surely this money would be better spent upgrading and improving the existing, which will, no doubt, go into decline if all resources and money is 'thrown' at the proposed HST2.

h.3) Maintenance and upkeep of the new railway will take first position for resources etc so another reason why not to go any further with more expense spent on 'considering' the purpose and reason behind providing a train that will arrive at its' destination 15 minutes earlier.

h.3) The government is quick to say we should make cuts wherever possible and yet the best and largest immediate cut could be made be cancelling this project, immediately.

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

"Please don't spoil our countryside"

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Petrol Charges

I wouldn’t normally bother you with this but it could help. Let’s
use the power of the Internet. Although greedy government, of any
colour, will not reduce their fuel tax take, while David Cameron is
saying the right words but not doing anything this may illustrate that
people will not roll over.  The last government did all in their power
to make us give up cars yet do nothing to enhance public transport and
reduce those costs so we have to send some sort of message to the
current government that is different from kicking in windows in
Whitehall and, being financial, reins them in.


  Subject: Petrol
                                Dear All,

                                Here is an interesting idea to think
about (and act upon?)...unless you've already received the same
message independently!

                                Please see what you think and pass it
on if you agree with it.

                                We are hitting 129.9p a litre in some
areas now and soon we will be faced with paying 150p  per litre. So
Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

                                This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the
'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign' that was going around
last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they
knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol.
It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work.

                                Please read it and join in!

                                Now that the oil companies and the
OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is
CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS -
not sellers control the market place. With the price of petrol going
up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we
are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in
the pocket by not purchasing their petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT
hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

                                For the rest of this year DON'T
purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are
one) i.e. ESSO and BP.


                                If they are not selling any petrol,
they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their
prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol
buyers. It's really simple to do!!

                                Now, don't wimp out on me at this
point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach
millions of people!!

                                I am sending this note to a lot of
people. If all of you send it   to at least ten more (30 x 10 =
300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)
... and so on.  By the time the message reaches the sixth generation
of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those
three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then
30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level
further, you guessed it.....

                                THREE HUNDRED MILLION  PEOPLE!!!

                                Again, all YOU have to do is send this
to 10 people. That's all (and not buy at ESSO/BP).  How long would all
that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people
within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be
contacted within the next 8 days!!! Acting together we can make a
difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

                                PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR
PRICES It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this and buy
your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e.
Boycott BP and Esso