Jun 2011 21

Why are the Government taxing the poor to pay for a rich man’s train?15

The Government’s planned high speed rail line will benefit a fortunate minority of passengers but cost well over £1,000 for every family in Britain.  Why are ordinary families doing their shopping and paying higher VAT; motorists paying a fortune at the pump; and commuters who will get a worse service, all set to pay such a huge price for this huge white elephant?

You can watch the three adverts, here:

The adverts follow a programme of research from the TPA looking at the problems with the business case for the new high speed rail line and identifying the many towns that will lose out and get worse train services if HS2 goes ahead:

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“Families will wonder why, with so much pressure on everyone’s finances, the Government are taxing the poor to pay for a rich man’s train. High speed rail is an incredibly expensive white elephant. It is the wrong project, particularly when the priority should be keeping down the cost to taxpayers and simpler improvements that can cut overcrowding for commuters, not a prohibitively expensive new high speed line. They need to reconsider their plans and look at more affordable ways of improving the rail network.”

We’ve also today reacted to the release of an independent report on the Goverment’s HS2 high-speed-rail project. The report, by Oxera, can be found here.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“Oxera’s report this morning confirms that the Government haven’t fairly compared their high speed rail plans to other more affordable options. They also point out there is little evidence for claims about the economic benefits of faster trains, and that rigorous assessments have suggested those benefits can be ‘very small indeed’. Hopefully this report will encourage serious scrutiny from Parliament, before billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is committed to high speed rail. The Government should look again at other ways to deliver the capacity the rail network needs, without risking so much money on what could turn out to be a huge white elephant. They shouldn’t be taxing the poor to pay for a rich man’s train, particularly on the basis of such an uncertain economic case.“

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  • Anonymous

    And once it’s built can we afford to maintain it? The existing road and rail infrastructure is in need of billions spent annually to maintain it in a usable condition. But this type of spending is boring and considered second rate to politicians who are always looking for the next big project that will change the world and create [fill in large unrealistic number here] jobs.

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  • http://twitter.com/ukgoldbug Gold Bug

    All the ministers involved will no doubt get really well paid directorships when they leave parliament and entirely coincidentally they’ll be with companies that benefited from exactly this sort of project. Absolutely no connection of course.

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  • gildedtumbril

    Britain should be renamed Taxmania, it is entirely fitting.

  • Anonymous

    Please follow this link, from “The Connexion”, an English language weekly published in France.
    It talks about the proposed new line from Toulouse to Bordeaux.
    It also says that a 1 kM wide corridor will be necessary, and following the links, maps of the proposed route can be found.
     
    http://www.connexionfrance.com/tgv-route-bordeaux-toulouse-spain-high-speed-rail-map-12818-view-article.html

  • fernea

    Q: “Why are the Government taxing the poor to pay for a rich man’s train?”

    That’s an easy one to answer! It’s being carried out on the orders of the EU from Brussels and is part of the strategic (and I use that word carefully and deliberately) development of the whole EU rail network.

    This is principally finished across Europe, but not in England or the UK in general, so a start must be made – soon.

  • The Biscuit

    No, England is Taxmania the others contribute next to nothing ! You let Westminster get away with it and it will get worse ! Anglophobia is rife throughout the media and political elite in this”  British” government which caters for all except the people of England
    and there “you ave it”

  • Countrymouse

    wHY is THE government………

  • A taxpayer who disagrees

    I am a tax payer.  The Taxpayers’ Alliance does not represent my views.  How many taxpayers do they represent?  Should they not be more honest in their claims?

    • Lola

      Ahh, and do you work for gummint or the State in some way?  If so you are not a taxpayer, you are atax consumer.

  • Lola

    Classic politically driven misallocation of capital that will destroy wealth and jobs.  Kill it off.

  • http://twitter.com/tomfollett Tom Follett

    Why are the government taxing ordinary rail passengers to pay for wasteful man’s motorway network?

  • http://twitter.com/tomfollett Tom Follett

    Why are the government taxing ordinary rail passengers to pay for wasteful man’s motorway network?

  • Sripp

    grammar – why IS the government not why ARE the government