Category Archives: Hs2

Another Stophs2 (fake) storm in a teacup!

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Carillion, Fake News, Hs2, Lazy journalism

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Sometimes it’s fake news that causes problems, sometimes it’s lazy journalism and other times it’s people who are either utterly incapable of reading and understanding factual material or who twist it to suit their own ends.

The latest storm in a teacup over Hs2 has elements of all this. Here’s the straight story as reported by Rail Technology Magazine.

“The former boss of Carillion’s UK infrastructure business is set to take over Balfour Beatty Vinci to lead its HS2 joint venture.” His name is Mark Davies, which is pretty easy to remember. He’s had a 30 plus year career in the Civils industry and joined Carillion after its acquisition of Alfred McAlpine in 2004. His correct title was Managing Director – Carillion Infrastructure, one of the divisions of the company.

As Carillion imploded in spectacular and controversial fashion, Mr Davies has obviously had some time on his hands, leading him to being recruited by the Joint Venture.

This is where the fun starts. In a combination of lazy journalism, mischief making and downright lies, Mr Davies has been spun as the ‘boss’ of Carillion, taking over at Hs2 itself. It’s complete tosh of course, but those who’re opposed to Hs2 are spinning like tops to make out this is the case. There’s a couple of rather major flaws with their story. Mr Davies was never the ‘boss’ of Carillion. He was never even on the Board of Directors!

The ‘boss’ (or bosses to be more precise) of Carillion when it collapsed were the chairman, Philip Green, along with Keith Cochrane who became its Interim Chief Executive on the 10th July 2017, a position he retained until the company went into liquidation in January 2018.

Whilst the Chairman and the Board of Directors have been quizzed by Parliamentary Committees and been criticised for their actions. I’ve not seen anything to suggest Mr Davies has been accused of anything. Not that this has stopped Hs2 antis trying to smear by association – as usual!

As for the ludicrous claims that he’s been made ‘boss’ of Hs2 –  I despair! He’s the MD of a joint venture that’s won an HS2 construction contract, nothing more, nothing less.

Still, facts eh?

 

 

Stop Hs2 number crunching.

13 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2

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I’ve not written anything about the anti Hs2 campaign for a while now, mainly because there’s nothing going on that’s worth writing about. To be honest, I’ve seen more life in a tramp’s vest! Apart from a few local groups still agitating in Yorkshire, there’s hardly anything to be seen – especially at a national level, where the campaign’s collapsed completely.

The only group that’s active (and I use that word in its loosest sense) is ‘StopHs2’ – otherwise known as the Penny & Joe show. Joe Rukin’s still not managed to find a proper job so he occasionally resorts to punching something out on the groups Facebook page or via their Twitter account. What they put out is very telling, because it’s purely reactive, not proactive. They’ve gone from campaigning to complaining. Everything they put out is a moan about Hs2, or the wider railway industry. There’s no campaign news, because there’s no campaign! Their problem is they’re increasingly shouting into space as no-one’s listening anymore – and that includes their supposed supporters. I’ve crunched some numbers to demonstrate the extent of their problem.

Firstly, here’s a bit of background. Hs2 will pass through 63 constituencies containing 6,567,433 people. In contrast, StopHs2 have 8439 Facebook followers whilst over on Twitter they have 6152 followers. Not exactly amazing numbers after 9 years, are they? That’s just 0.12% for Facebook and 0.09% on Twitter! I can’t help wonder why – if as was claimed – so many people are up in arms about Hs2 they’re not engaging with the sole remaining ‘national’ group set up to stop Hs2?

It gets worse!

How many of those 8439 on Facebook and 6152 on Twitter ever engage or respond? Bugger all! I’ve crunched the numbers for every Tweet and post for August. Here are the results;

stophs2 stats

Embarrassing, isn’t it? Does this sound like an active campaign to you? It’s worth bearing in mind this is after Hs2’s been in the news a lot recently. The truth is, apart from a tiny bunch of die-hards and trolls on social media, most people have given up and moved on. There is no active campaign and hasn’t been for several years now.

Here’s some examples of their tweets and Facebook posts and their responses.

stophs2 tweet 1

tweet 2

More people respond on Facebook than on Twitter.

fb

Often the responses are so out of touch with reality they’re classics!

res 1

Well, that’s worked really well for the last 9 years, hasn’t it? Ditto this response…

res 2

And then there’s the usual mad UKIPper nonsense.

kipper

Is it any wonder why no-one takes this tiny bunch of ‘eccentrics’ seriously anymore?

More on the Gilligoon fake furore…

23 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Rail Investment, StopHs2

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Predictably, yesterday’s story (for that’s what it was) in the Sunday Times has caused the usual predictable outcry from Hs2 antis that the project should be cancelled. Equally predictably, non of them have bothered looking at the timeline of events (including a general election) that demonstrate this was never going to happen.

Not only that, but no-one’s bothered looking at the latest IPA Annual Report on Major Projects for 2017-18. Because if they had they’d have realised how Gilligan’s story focussing as it does on an outdated report really is today’s chip paper.

Firstly, let’s remind ourselves what the DCA ratings system is.

DCA ratings

The IPA report looks at several rail projects, not just HS2. These are;

Crossrail (moved from Green to Amber)

Thameslink (moved from Green to Amber)

Midland Mainline programme (remains on Amber)

Hs2 (remains on Amber/Red)

Great Western route modernisation (remains on Amber/Red)

North of England programme (remains on Amber/Red)

East-West rail (remains on Amber/Red)

Southwest route capacity (remains on Amber/Red)

Rail franchising programme (moves from Amber to Amber/Red)

Intercity Express Programme (moves from Amber to Red)

Eh? Hold on, the IEP programme, which is delivering new Hitachi built trains every week to GWR and soon to LNER ‘appears to be ‘unachievable’? Tell that to the passengers who’re riding on those trains!

DG302957. 800304. Bristol Temple Meads. 18.7.18

One of the ‘unachievable’ IEP programme trains (left) alongside one of the venerable HSTs they’re replacing, seen at Bristol Temple Meads earlier this month.

Of course, sensible, pragmatic people will take the IPA report for what it is, a guide, not gospel. But that’s not the anti Hs2 mob, obviously! The truth is, Hs2 has remained at Amber/Red now for several years. Looking back at the programme’s progress and timescale I doubt it will move from that for several more years (despite what then Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin once claimed) especially as there’s still the final Phase 2b Hybrid Bill to make its way through Parliament.  Then there’s the construction contracts to be let for phases 2a and 2b. What is interesting is that despite all the claims from those opposing Hs2, the project’s never moved into the red category – which (if all the scaremongering over increased costs was true) you’d have expected it to.

Meanwhile, progress on Hs2 continues. On a project of such a vast scale there’s bound to be bumps along the road, but what’s clear is that those bumps are being ironed out. The next couple of years will be exciting times for the project. Away from all the hype and hyperbole, work continues every day, preparing the ground for the main civils work on phase 1 to start (just have a look around the Euston area to see that). In Parliament the Phase 2a Hybrid Bill Committee are making steady progress. There’s a complete absence of anti Hs2 groups gumming up proceedings this time as Hs2aa has folded and StopHs2 don’t even get a look-in. The Phase 2a bill is expected to get Royal Assent by the end of 2019, then we move on to the final Phase 2b bill. The project still maintains cross-party support, so there’s nothing to stop Hs2. There’s no national anti Hs2 campaign anymore, so barring a major political earthquake, the project’s unstoppable.

 

 

 

 

More anti Hs2 Gilligoonery in the Times today

22 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by in Andrew Gilligan, Hs2, StopHs2

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Today’s Sunday Times carries yet another attempt at a hatchet job on Hs2 by one Andrew ‘transcription error’ Gilligan, a man who’s churned out stuff trying to discredit Hs2 as long as the project’s been going. Of course, none of his fanciful claims have come to pass, but that’s never stopped either him, or the gullibility of Hs2 anti’s who continue to grasp at every straw he throws them.

The latest stuff is that Gilligoon has supposedly been passed a copy of a report, dated December 2016, written by Paul Mansell, an IPA adviser embedded full-time in HS2. As usual, we have to take Gilligoon’s word for this and what its contents say as none of the report is reproduced in his article. Instead, we have to rely on snippets written in quotation marks. Such as,

“The assessment describes the scheme as “fundamentally flawed”, in a “precarious position”. And, the project is “highly likely” to go as much as 60% over budget and cost “more than £80bn”

So, it’s the usual cut and paste job by Gilligoon, where we have to rely on the great man’s reputation for accuracy and integrity. At least (for once), his article doesn’t use the standard lazy journalists phrase and claim that the report is ‘damning’.

The rest of the article is the usual mish-mash of previously reported speculation that’s been added to pad it out and try and make it seem more than it is. So, we get a repetition of the ConHome kite flying that Michael Gove’s been canvassing opinions that if he becomes PM, scrapping Hs2 would be a vote winner – ignoring the fact Gove’s just as  likely to end up in prison for his role in the vote Leave illegality as he is in No 10!

We also get treated to recycling the story that Hs2’s land purchase costs are billions over budget and – just for good measure – the story that Michael Byng has calculated that Hs2 will cost north of £100bn.

So, it’s the usual speculative numbers bullshit bingo! For years we’ve had Hs2 antis throw around invented numbers, each one more fanciful than the last. We’ve had £60, 80, 100, 123, 150 and even £200bn presented as the ‘true cost’ of Hs2 over the past 9 years!

Meanwhile, what’s happened in the real world since this report is meant to have been written (December 2016)? Here’s a timeline.

23 February 2017: Hs2 phase 1 gets Royal Assent.

8th June 2017: A general election. The one where ConHome tried to pretend that the Tories were serious about dropping Hs2!

17th July 2017: £6.6bn of Hs2 construction contracts were let. On the same day the Bill for hs2 Phase 2a was introduced into Parliament.

30th January 2018: The phase 2a bill passes 2nd reading with a massive majority of 295 to 12. The bill is now proceeding through Parliament.

Looking at events since December 2016 it’s clear that the Government has had several opportunities to pull the plug on Hs2. They haven’t. But hey, why let facts get in the way? Andrew Gilligan never has!

 

 

A classic own goal from Stophs2!

17 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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I can’t think of when I last blogged about the Stop Hs2 campaign. Mainly because there’s nothing going on! There’s no active national campaign anymore, just a few local groups, most of which are moribund. Stop Hs2 (otherwise know as Joe Rukin and Penny Gaines) are a complete waste of space. Their ‘campaign’ consists of increasingly rare posts to their website, or the occaisional moan about Hs2 on Twitter and, err – that’s it. They’ve gone from proactive to reactive, swapping campaigning to stop Hs2 to nothing more than moaning about Hs2 (and railways in general). Not that they get much reaction. Officially, they’ve over 6,000 followers on Twitter, but it’s painfully obvious many of those accounts are defunct (or bots) as the retweet & response rathe is tiny. They’re lucky if to get a couple of dozen retweets or responses.

Until now…

Stupidly, one of the pair decided to make disparaging remarks about the fans of singer Harry Styles, who’ve been using the #hs2 hashtag to discuss the name of the artists second album. StopHs2 made the cardinal error of thinking the hashtag was somehow their property and posted a patronising response!

stophs2 styles

The reaction (understandably) was predictable. StopHs2 were schooled on politeness and how fanbases are international!

styles 1

styles 2

Some UK folk enjoyed StopHs2’s own goal…

styles 3

So, Stophs2 finally manage to make an impact on Twitter – and it leaves them with egg on their faces around the world!

(Rolling blog). Ready, steady, go!

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Transport, Travel

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The marathon’s started. Right now i’m wedged in the vestibule of a 2-car Class 158 making its way to Leeds from Halifax. I’m an infrequent user of these services so it wasn’t until the Conductor apologised for the short-formed set that I realised this wasn’t the norm. There’s 14 people in this vestibule and we’ve had to leave people behind at Bramley because we’re so full. Good job I wasn’t planning to try and do any work on the train!

Despite everything, it wasn’t a bad journey and I arrived in plenty of time to make my way to the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders conference which was being held at Leeds Music College.

20.38.

Time for an update on the day. I’ve been to a lot of conferences but this was one of the better ones. Over 250 people attended and the line up of speakers was excellent. One of the highlights of the morning was Lord Andrew Adonis who was on scintillating form! He gave an absolute barnstormer of a talk covering everything from Hs2 to Brexit (which he happily slipped a knife between its ribs)! He was funny and informative in equal measure. As he’s been a Transport Minister and Chair of the Infrastructure Commission he knows his subject and isn’t afraid to offer opinions – if you agree with them or not!

DG298323low

Lord Adonis with Daisy McAndrews, ITV’s former Economics Editor, who chaired the conference.

The day passed very quickly despite the crowded programme and it really deserves a blog in its own right (although I’m not sure that I’m going to find time to write one right now). What I will say is that – unlike many conferences, it didn’t tail off after lunch as the first person up was Hs2 Ltd’s Chief Executive Mark Thurston, who came across very well when it came to the Q and A session.

DG298386crop

The final section of the day was given over to a panel debate and Q & A session with Tim Wood (Northern Powerhouse Rail Director, TfN). Susan Hinchcliffe (West Yorkshire Combined Authority Chair and Leader of Bradford Council), Paul Griffiths ( Phase 2b Director, Hs2 Ltd), Angela Barnicle (Head of Asset Management, Leeds City Council) and John Downer (Director of HSRIL). This was a genuinely informative and inspiring session where the groups really laid out what Hs2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail mean to the North and the synergy between the two projects that could see TfN building parts of the shared route before Hs2 do. Tim also laid bare TfN’s ambition to build entirely new rail lines between Leeds-York and Manchester-Liverpool.

After leaving the conference I made my way back to Leeds station with some colleagues before getting a few photos. Whilst having a mooch around, one thing struck me. Despite the impact Northern’s timetable problems are having, there’s not a single poster anywhere offering an apology or explanation. Nothing. You wouldn’t even know there’s a temporary timetable in operation. It’s bizarre. In the days of MD Heidi Mottram and (later) Alex Hynes, you can guarantee there would have been profuse apologies (not to mention regular updates) – even a presence on the front line. This is no way to run a public service…

Now I’m speeding to London on a late running VTEC service. Apparently, a Northbound working ‘sat down’ near Peterborough leading to delays, but as I’ve plenty of time I’m not too bothered and VTEC have done what Northern haven’t – kept me informed and apologised!

22.56

I’m now back in London and emailing pictures to RAIL mag in readiness for press day tomorrow before heading off to Germany and a couple of days with the press pack at the Siemens Innotrans preview. Expect pictures and details when I can post them…

Another mad week begins!

11 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in Calder Valley, Germany, Hs2, I love my job, Never a dull life, Northern Rail, Photography, Photojournalism, Rail Investment, Travel

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The old expression “feast or famine” springs to mind this week as I find myself with one of those weeks where there’s just too much happening at the same time, leaving me with an interesting exercise in logistics and juggling.

Right now I’m off to Manchester to check on rail improvement work and the effects of the timetable ‘difficulties’. I’ll report back on what I find. At least my train from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester’s only a minute late. It’s 158905, which is one of the DMUs West Yorkshire PTE funded ‘back in the day’. It’s still providing sterling service, even if it’s carrying a lighter load than usual today.

Funnily enough, I’ve just passed one of its sister units at Hebden Bridge which is still carrying Scotrail livery (158871). It’s the delayed cascade of units like 871 that’s contributed to Northern’s present difficulties

Tomorrow, the fun starts in earnest. I’m attending the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders conference in Leeds then heading straight down to London in readiness for an early morning flight to Germany. I’m part of a Siemens press trip which will preview some of their new products ahead of the massive Innotrans trade fair in Berlin in September. It’s going to be a busy couple of days in Germany but as soon as I land I have to dash again – this time to Crewe as I’ve volunteered to take the pictures on the Railway Children charities annual ‘3 peaks by rail’ fundraiser. This is only being made possible by my long-suffereing wife, Dawn – who will be meeting me (fleetingly) in London for a rapid kit change! Hopefully (Heathrow customs permitting) I’ll make it to Crewe in time to catch the train. If not, I’ll be catching up with them in Bangor at some God-awful hour!

The ‘3 Peaks by rail’ event lasts from Thursday evening until Saturday evening, when I should land back in Preston in time to get home. Last year that didn’t happen. One of the pair of Class 37s had to be changed at Carlisle so we were late and I had to stay over in Manchester. I’m hoping for better luck this time. Dawn’s on standby with the car, just in case…

As you can see, there’s going to be plenty to shoot and write about, so watch this space…

15.37.

Right now I’m returning from a look at electrification of and expansion to Bolton station. The delays to this project are another reason for Northern’s problems…

When the StopHs2 campaign’s ‘out in force’ in Trowell!

06 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Silly season, StopHs2

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Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh at the antics of what’s left of the anti Hs2 campaign. It’s rare that I blog about them nowadays as there’s really nothing going on at a national level and very little at a local one either, but I couldn’t help but have a chuckle at this abject nonsense from today.

Apparently, two ‘action’ groups on the Phase 2b route (Trowell and Erewash) combined ‘forces’ to stage a march along part of the route of Hs2 in order to draw attention to the scheme. Instead, what they’ve drawn attention to is how few of them there are. Here’s the piece from the Nottingham Post, which helpfully provides a video and pictures (link). Don’t worry, the video doesn’t last long – this isn’t exactly on the scale of a Soviet military parade! I count around two dozen people (including babies) – as the photo illustrating the article demonstrates.

Notts.PNG

So, let’s crunch some numbers. The Erewash constituency contains 95,778 people. The MP is Maggie Throup, who has voted to build Hs2. Trowell is in the Broxtowe constituency of MP Anna Soubry, who’s also voted to build Hs2. It contains 97,032 people. That’s a combined total of 192,810 people – of which two dozen have turned out to protest about Hs2.

One freelance journalist got a little carried away and described the demonstration on Twitter thus;

snow

I think Ms Snow may have confused the words force and farce…

There’s also a piece in the Derby Telegraph and a very optimistic interview with someone called Brent Poland, who claims they’re going to stop Hs2. How a few dozen people are going to do this without any political support (including from their own MPs) he never actually explains…

 

 

New report on ‘fast-tracking prosperity in the North-West and Midlands’ with Hs2 phase 2a

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Crewe Hub, Hs2, Hs2 to Crewe, Rail Investment

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Yesterday I was in Crewe to attend the launch of a new report into how the Midlands and North-West can unlock the economic and transport opportunities presented by phase 2a of Hs2 which is due to reach Crewe by 2026. The report was commissioned by the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders group (HSRIL). You can download it from the website via this link.

 

DG294525copy

Guests at the launch of the report included Councillor Rachel Bailey, Leader of Cheshire East Council. Councillor Paul Yates, Leader of Crewe Town Council. Phillip Cox, CEO of Cheshire and Warrington LEP.  Paul Colman, CEO of South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce and Jims Steer of Greengauge 21 which authored the report. 

 

The report outlines how, when Sir David Higgins became Hs2 Ltd’s Chairman in 2014 he suggested accelerating Phase 2, bringing the line to Crewe 6 years earlier than planned (to 2027 from 2033). This resulted in the Government agreeing to bring forward a second Hybrid Bill for what became known as Hs2 Phase 2a. In January, the bill passed 2nd reading by an overwhelming majority (295 to 12 against).

Another chapter of the report deals with the Crewe Hub scheme, which was agreed by the Government in March 2018. In the past there were several different proposals for Crewe. At one time Network Rail were suggesting building a new station further South on the site of the Basford Hall marshalling yard. This met with local political opposition.

In July 2017 the Government published a consultation on the idea of the Crewe hub. The outcome was published on March 9th

Now the Crewe hub scheme has agreement from all sides. It doesn’t form part of the Hs2 Phase 2a Hybrid Bill, instead it’ll be created through a partnership of Network Rail, Cheshire East Council and Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Council (LEP).

The plan is to create a strategic interchange that will allow the whole of Cheshire, North Staffordshire, North Wales and the Mersey-Dee area to benefit from Hs2 at the earliest opportunity. In total, this sub-region has a population of more than 1.5 million whilst around 5 million live within an hour of the station. It’s worth remembering that by 2013/14, Crewe accounted for more London-bound passengers than Warrington, Stafford, Chester or Stafford, yet the facilities don’t measure up. In 2016-17 the station was used by 3.086 million people, plus an additional 1.476 million interchange passengers.

The redesigned station would allow 400m long Hs2 trains to divide and join at Crewe. Service plans aren’t yet finalised but options suggested are for one set serving Lancaster/Preston and another Stoke-on-Trent (and possibly Macclesfield, Stockport and Manchester) to split/join at Crewe, thus only using one Euston path instead of two.

The locations for the 400m platforms are on two sites. One would be an extension of the existing platform 5, the other proposal would be a platform on the Manchester Independent (freight) lines to the West of the existing station although Network Rail are  examining if reinstating the old platform 13 would be an affordable alternative as this would address concerns by freight operators worried that paths through the area may be lost.

In order to link the different sites together and make the station a modern gateway to the town the plan is to build a transfer deck across the site. Grimshaw Architects have been looking at a design for the new station which will keep and enhance the historic parts of the site whilst sweeping away much of the later clutter. At the moment station access is limited and causes traffic congestion as most people use the entrance from the Nantwich Rd over bridge which is a busy link road and the only one across the site. Station car parking is also an issue as the main station car-park is North-West of the site, where the old Crewe North Loco shed was. The plan would include moving this to the Eastern side of the station in a new multi-storey car park, freeing up the Nantwich Rd bridge for other traffic. The transfer deck would create a new link from Weston Rd on the East and (possibly) Gresty Rd and the Crewe Alexandra football ground on the West.

 

DG294556

After the launch, guests were given a guided tour of the station to see what works were proposed. 

 

The consultation also agreed a change to the design of the southern connection from HS2, so that HS2 joins (and takes over) the central two lines on the existing network.

The report also mentions that a junction north of Crewe, enabling HS2 trains to call at Crewe and then re-join the HS2 main line, as part of Phase 2b would be needed to allow Crewe station to support the Constellation Partnership’s ambition of 5–7 HS2 trains per hour calling at Crewe and frequencies of 3-4 trains per hour on each of the regional links.

Included in the report are details of the economic appraisal.

economic appraisal

There’s also potential service patterns.

scen 1

scen 2

scen 3

I’m not going to go into all the economic data contained in the report as I’m concentrating more on the rail aspects, but it does contain details of the Northern Gateway Development Zone and business opportunities and development as well as plans to create 100,000 new homes and 120,000 jobs.

The report’s a useful document for drawing together the ambitious plans for the Crewe hub and the benefits Hs2 phase 2a brings, not just to Crewe but also to the routes that radiate from the station. Work is expected to begin and be funded from Network Rail’s control period CP6 (2019-2024) as most of what is proposed is within the existing railway footprint.

It’s great to see that, after all the years of wrangling over the future of the station, Hs2 has provided a catalyst that’s brought the parties together around a firm proposal. As someone who’s known Crewe station since the early 1970s and watched its decline all the way through the 1990s to the present I’m looking forward to the new plans coming to fruition.

StopHs2: Their archive’s great for mapping their decline…

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in election2015, General election, Hs2, StopHs2

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I was doing a bit of research the other day so I popped into the StopHs2 campaign’s website to look back through some of the deceitful nonsense and bluster they’ve spouted over the years. As you may have noticed, I do like a bit of number crunching! Whilst I was there I noticed that their archive’s a clear indicator of their gradual demise. Their archives go back to the spring of 2010, so I decided to have a look at how many articles they produced each year and tallied up the figures for each March and April. Here they are.

articles on stophs2 website

After being steady for so many years the decline since 2016 is marked. It’s hardly surprising as there’s nothing to report as nothing’s going on now the campaign’s collapsed. Most of the articles over the past couple of years have been reactive, complaining about Hs2 rather than campaigning to stop Hs2.

If you can take the time to browse through the archive there’s some hilarious predictions and pronouncements that haven’t aged well at all. There’s a rich vein of Joe Rukin’s  lies to be mined too!

I’ll leave you with this gem from April 2015. In it, Penny Gaines claims that “it’s worth reminding politicians that HS2 is a big issue in constituencies along the line” Really Penny? In the attached video Joe Rukin makes the same claim, highlighting Warwickshire North, the constituency where the outgoing MP Dan Byles (an opponent of Hs2) had a wafer thin majority of 54.

HS2 dominates election campaign in many constituencies

So, what was the result? Well, the new Tory candidate INCREASED the Tory majority by 3%, from 54 to 2,973 as the BBC reported here. So much for Hs2 being an election issue! The same happened on other parts of the route too as I pointed out in a blog at the time.

When the last one out turns out the lights on StopHs2 I do hope they leave their archive online as a testament of how not to run a campaign!