Those claiming that the current pandemic means we don't need HS2's increased rail capacity because many people are working from home are shamelessly taking advantage of a crisis to push their misguided agenda…. Why misguided? Let’s examine what that position means.

Firstly the pandemic will not last forever and by adopting this position they are trying to scare you into thinking that it will. Lockdown is showing us how much we value travelling, not just for work but for leisure.

It is also showing us how many simply can't work from home & those that can hate it. Being cooped up in small flats with a blurred home & work life is having a negative impact on people's mental health.

In cities this is compounded by the lack of green space which is a direct result of our car centric transport policy over the last half a century. Cars not only create pollution but take up a lot of space when they travel on roads or when they are parked.

This is space in cities that could be used to create pocket parks & spaces for people instead of car parking. We have seen many people having to travel to parks because there isn't one near where they live. More green spaces reduce the need to travel somewhere else to use them.

The way to free up that space is to encourage the use of far greener & efficient public transport. Many people continue to drive because PT options are not available. This is often lost on some Londoners who assume that other UK cities will have similarly extensive PT networks.

Equally true is that many of society’s most vulnerable will need a car. Getting more people on PT means limiting car use to those who do actually need it, making their lives better, more productive & easier to switch to EVs, which whilst not perfect are good if...

... we are switching to them whilst not expanding their usage because of better PT, walking & cycling options.

So, as long as XR continue to agitate against HS2 & its massive rail capacity increase, local rail services will never be able to operate at the frequency to encourage modal shift away from cars.

The whole point of HS2 is to create capacity for more services, new routes & new stations to make travel by rail an option to millions more people. It is this kind of investment in local rail services & the greener public transport we need to reverse the climate catastrophe.

The far more nefarious aspect of holding the view that the ability to work from home means we no longer need HS2 is that logically it necessarily commits you to believing that we no longer need public transport either.

What we should be arguing for is that as the majority of travel (& emissions) involves private vehicles, if working from home becomes more prevalent that means many people should *no longer need cars*. Attacking HS2 means attacking PT use in favour of more cars & more roads.

By attacking PT you encourage more people to drive, as more people drive but the number of journeys decreases, that threatens the viability of our existing PT network resulting in a reduction in services & you guessed it, deepening our already damaging car centric travel habits.

The opportunism of some XR groups in using the pandemic to attack HS2 is shameful, especially when you consider that a broader attack on public transport is the logical corollary.

We should be reducing how much we travel to reverse the climate emergency but to do so effectively requires making a greater proportion of our journeys by greener options such as rail. HS2 enables that to happen.

If that doesn’t convince you, ask yourself why the TPA, the IEA and their oil company backers are making exactly the same arguments against HS2 but no-one seems to be using the sight of empty motorways across the country to argue for fewer cars and fewer roads. We should be.