Oh Sarah, if you’re going to ask a question in parliament at least know what you’re talking about. MP for Moseley North Sarah Edwards dropped a clanger asking a question about HS2 in parliament recently, apparently clueless about what HS2 is and also not knowing the very important fact that the line isn’t going to stop in Tamworth whatsoever.
Sarah seems to think that HS2 trains are going to run on ‘Victorian era infrastructure’ which would be quite concerning if we were still using the same rails and wooden sleepers from then, as if they haven’t had several upgrades since, including that new fangled fancy electricity stuff. One of these upgrades if you follow anything train related was to allow faster tilting trains, as pointed out to her in the answer she got above. It’s not like Sarah is even trying to find out information here, she’s literally swinging and missing in her attempt to point score. HS2 as stated here will join on to the West Coast mainline for the Birmingham to Manchester leg. It will not be top speed, because as again since Sarah has missed the point, they are currently building a whole new railway for it to do that. Would she rather they shut down the West Coast line for them to upgrade that too? Or even more controversial, carry on with that leg of HS2?
Sarah also proves again she’s asking the really important questions for Tamworth people complaining that the speed will be too slow for them. Well we’ve news for you Sarah, HS2 doesn’t have a stop in Tamworth, and probably never will. So it won’t make the blindest bit of difference for ‘your constituents’ here in Tamworth, although we do understand Moseley residents (of which you are one) will benefit from HS2 link projects. Maybe it was them you were talking about? It’s highly unlikely anyone is going to travel to Birmingham from Tamworth to get on HS2, since that would defeat the amazing 20 minute time saving.
Regardless of what you think of HS2, once those business and well off people travelling from Birmingham (or farther afield) to London and vice versa take themselves off to the new line. Then the people of Tamworth might well stand a chance of getting a seat on our currently overcrowded line, and maybe even a reasonably priced one too! That’s the theory anyway, and probably the question we would have asked in parliament.
