Boris Johnson raises concerns over ‘perverse’ HS2 project

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London Mayor Boris Johnson has reportedly called the high speed rail project ‘perverse’ and ‘inadequate’.

The comments were made in a letter to anti-HS2 campaigner Jerry Marshall, chairman of the group AGHAST.

The proposed line will link London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester an is scheduled to begin construction in 2016.

Boris said in the letter that the number of passengers at Euston Station would double and the capacity of the Tube network would also need to increase.

Only last week Prime Minister David Cameron told an audience in Birmingham that the government is ‘committed’ to HS2.

In the letter, Boris Johnson said he believed the whole stretch of the line that runs through London should be underground.

The letter was obtained by the Sunday Telegraph and a spokesperson for the Mayor has said it was ‘private’.

The letter reads: “While I have expressed support for a high speed rail network in the past my support is conditional on a number of specific criteria and on the need to make the new railway work well for London.

“The proposal now being consulted on does not reflect these conditions and is inadequate for a number of reasons.

“It is perverse that a section of the route through Greater London has been subject to so little environmental mitigation.”

A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said: “The mayor supports high speed 2 in principle. He just has concerns over the route as it stands.”

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