HS2 'a disaster for York'
Concerns have been raised as construction officially starts today on the project.
HS2 is moving a step closer to linking up York with other cities across the UK.
The high speed rail project has officially started construction today, starting with Phase One between London and the West Midlands.
But Church Fenton resident Jo Mason told Greatest Hits Radio York: "it's a disaster for all concerned. HS2 is a complete and utter waste of money, and the capacity case for it is even more shredded now because people will continue to work from home in large numbers.
"It won't bring economic benefits to York. Once they've electrified the East Coast Mainline the projected time saving on HS2 would only be nine minutes above the electrified line. I don't see how it'd possibly benefit York or this region".
"If they get as far as Leeds in Phase 2 then spending the extra billions to try and link it to York when there's no journey time saving then I don't see how they could or would do it here".
Chair of York Green Party Tom Franklin says he's concerned about the environmental impact: "it's not delivering what we need, which is to rebalance the economy away from London. It is destroying a lot of ancient woodland and it'll increase noise pollution.
"The benefits, if they do come, will not be here for a long time. There are far better projects that we should be focusing on".
In a Government statement announcing today's construction, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "“HS2 is at the heart of our plans to build back better – and with construction now formally underway, it’s set to create around 22,000 new jobs.
“As the spine of our country’s transport network, the project will be vital in boosting connectivity between our towns and cities.
“But HS2’s transformational potential goes even further. By creating hundreds of apprenticeships and thousands of skilled jobs, HS2 will fire up economic growth and help to rebalance opportunity across this country for years to come.”
Mark Thurston, CEO of HS2 Ltd said: “This is a hugely exciting moment in the progress of HS2. After 10 years of development and preparatory work, today we can formally announce the start of full construction, unlocking thousands of jobs and supply chain opportunities across the project.
“We are already seeing the benefits that building HS2 is bringing to the UK economy in the short term, but it’s important to emphasise how transformative the railway will be for our country when operational. With the start of construction, the reality of high speed journeys joining up Britain’s biggest cities in the North and Midlands and using that connectivity to help level up the country has just moved a step closer.”