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Warrington Green Party objects to high speed rail plan

4:30pm Monday 16th January 2012 in News

PLANS for a new high-speed train line will be at the expense of rail travelliers in Warrington according to transport campaigners.

Warrington Green Party believes the £17 billion project will end up sucking resources away from other schemes which could benefit passengers.

Steph Davies is the leader of the party in the town.

She said: “This is a glamour project that is nothing to do with making things better for the ordinary traveller.

“Anyone who travels from Warrington Central or Bank Quay knows that what is needed is more carriages on existing trains to reduce overcrowding and more investment in the current network.

“This massive amount of expenditure at a time of what is supposed to be austerity beggars belief.”

She said the high cost of using the line could turn it into a route for the rich.

“The benefits can only be for an elite few and these minor time savings are very unlikely to lead to any job creation.”

The party has also criticised David Mowat, Warrington South MP, for his support of the plans.

“It is hard to see how Warrington travellers will see any benefit,” Steph added.

“It is quite clear that we are being represented by yet another Conservative who wants big business to take the profits while local people's travel needs are ignored.”

Comments(7)

moleogod says...
8:24am Tue 17 Jan 12

"She said the high cost of using the line could turn it into a route for the rich". on what basis is that its a line for all its not like it will just be first class. but yeah we need more carriages thats true ..
"The benefits can only be for an elite few and these minor time savings are very unlikely to lead to any job creation".. what about the 1000s of jobs it will take to build it.... this person seem like an ijut

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grey_man says...
12:26pm Tue 17 Jan 12

The underlying premise behind HS2 is flawed if only because it is based on the assumption that nobody works on trains. Anybody who has travelled on the west coast line from Warrington knows this is absolute nonsense. fares are already ridiculously high and spiralling further. Not only that, the train won't reach the North West, if it ever does, for 20 years and even then it will go to Manchester. I have no idea while Warrington politicians are backing it. At best it's irrelevant to this town.

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Pooreastender says...
3:26pm Tue 17 Jan 12

The Greens won't be happy till we are all riding round in horse drawn carts.
They have been calling for years for better rail links to get people out of cars, and now that they have got what they want, they don't like it. Could we have the Green Party plan for railways with costings and cost/benefit analysis? Or are you just a small party that will protest about whatever any government does?

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grey_man says...
5:17pm Tue 17 Jan 12

Well I'm not a green. I use the railways all the time. I've seen the cost / benefit analysis compared to other forms of investment and it doesn't stack up. It strikes me that it is done because Government like projects to point t rather than upgrades.

Incidentally, there are a number of additional carriages for the West Coast mainline that the Government and Virgin can't agree on introducing. I'd be more grateful for our local politicians to be banging heads together about that rather than getting excited about an expensive new train set between London and Birmingham.

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the dr who says...
5:33pm Tue 17 Jan 12

rail travel verses car comes out cheaper by car all day long, i tried to commute to preston and it was £24 a day the train was far too early to preston and far too late back and my car can do both ways on £5 per day. rail travel will never be a viable option for commuting. but i am sure someone out there will prove me wrong

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old-codger says...
9:23pm Tue 17 Jan 12

Anything to do with the GREEN party will cost more money. Green backs or pound notes as we used to call them, These are the people who cant see the wood for the tree,s. It will take 20 minutes to manchester to catch the high speed service, Not a big job, Not much to ask for, The Green party are attention seekers at every oportunity and always have done.Whatever brain dead idea they come up with will cost us more money just save 20 minutes. They should concentrate on the environment and leave the rest of the world alone...

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Northernsoul1 says...
10:47pm Thu 19 Jan 12

What an about turn for the green party. Not so long ago they were all for this new enterprise. They could not praise it highly enough, It was the answer to all our ills as far as they were concerned. Now all of a sudden it is a poison about to be given to us and it is the worst thing on earth. Make your mind up Greens. You have very little credibility as it is and you are rapidly losing that little bit.

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