High speed rail has 'no business case'

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The HS2 project, which could cost as much as £34 billion, was "a massive, massive gamble", said Stop HS2 convener Joe Rukin.

A London-Birmingham new line and then links further north to Scotland had not been properly assessed, Rukin told the House of Commons Transport Committee.

HS2 chief executive Alison Munro had said the proposed line, which will cut through the countryside of southern and central England, would bring great benefits to Birmingham but Rukin claimed it was more likely to help London.

"There is no business case, no environmental case and no money for HS2. The more we find out (about) the project, the worse it seems to be," he said.

Matthew Farrow, the CBI's transport head, said his organisation supported HS2, particularly as there were concerns about overcrowding on the London to Scotland West Coast Main Line.

But Matthew Jaffa, deputy head of policy at the Federation of Small Businesses, said that small firms were not putting HS2 at the top of their priority list, preferring to see investment in roads rather than rail.

Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, told MPs that there was a danger of "big projectitis" taking over in transport at the expense of smaller schemes.