Rail network has been significantly upgraded

It has obviously escaped his notice that steam trains were taken out of service some years ago and that sleek Pendolinos, less than ten years old and potentially capable of 140 mph, have subsequently replaced them. It is only a few years since more than £8bn was spent on upgrading the West Coast Main Line (WCML) and this has delivered benefits in service reliability and passenger experience. It enabled Virgin Trains to introduce its “Virgin High Frequency” timetable in December 2008, improving journey times and increasing capacity substantially.

Even at current operating speeds, the Virgin Trains service meets the requirements of European Union Directive 96/48/EC Appendix 1 for existing railways, allowing it to be classified as “high speed”.

Mr Birkbeck also says that “we now have a system which is overstretched, incapable of being radically improved and essentially worn out”.

The first of these claims, that there is a major capacity problem on WCML, is often heard and various unsuccessful attempts have been made, under Freedom of Information requests, to obtain statistics from the Government that support this view. Forced to try and obtain its own data in these circumstances, the HS2 Action Alliance carried out a survey, which was overseen and verified by an independent research firm, and found that long-distance train services leaving Euston in evening peak hours were only 56 per cent full on average.

The WCML is not “incapable of being radically improved”. The 51m alliance of local authorities has submitted plans to the HS2 public consultation that allow expected demand increase to be accommodated on the existing network, without the need to construct HS2. Much of the anticipated demand increase may be satisfied by the simple expedient of adding extra carriages, but some track work at identified “pinch points” will provide further service improvements. Mr Birkbeck’s rationale for rejecting these proposals, that are much cheaper than HS2, indicate a mind that is closed against the advantages that they offer.

To describe the WCML, less than four years after a major upgrade, as “essentially worn out” is, frankly, ridiculous. Even the HS2 plans rely on the WCML continuing to serve intermediate stations, such as Coventry. This would hardly be feasible if Mr Birkbeck was correct in his assertion.

He also suggests that “we should be channelling our thoughts” towards mitigation. The Cubbington Action Group against HS2 identified mitigation issues in its submission to the public consultation and sent a letter to the Chief Engineer of HS2 Ltd seeking discussions on this topic last September.

No opportunity to talk to the engineers at HS2 Ltd about this issue has been offered to date and all that we have to show for our efforts is a reduction in the width of the proposed cutting through South Cubbington Wood, which will still result in extensive damage to this ancient woodland.

Indeed, rather than mitigate the impacts on Cubbington, the latest plans make matters worse by increasing the height of the embankment across the Leam Valley by almost four metres in places and reducing the depth of the cutting. The motivation for this change appears to be cost saving, as less spoil will be generated by the excavation of a shallower cutting and the higher embankment will allow for more of it to be disposed of locally. - Peter Delow, Chairman Cubbington Action Group against HS2.