HSR debate mutates from class struggle to left wing/right wing war of words

High-speed rail continues to be the leading transport-related media obsession of the day, with opponents of HS2 now being branded as politically right wing, despite traditionally conservative business organisations remaining strongly supportive of the concept.

Rik Thomas

29 July 2011

The research carried out by the Institute of Economic Affairs into high-speed rail was criticised in the media as being the work of right-wing idealogues

Government plans to build a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham (and thereafter points north) continued to be the dominant transport-related story in the mainstream media in July, stimulated in large part by a new report suggesting that the HS2 proposals are not a particularly good idea. “The proposed £32bn north-south high-speed rail link is ‘economically flawed’ and based on bogus calculations, a leading free-market thinktank has warned,” The...