• A FEW months ago my wife and I were invited to a wedding in Glasgow. There was nothing unusual about that except that my wife had booked tickets on the slow train on the West Coast Mainline.

I must be the only Camden councillor to have travelled the West Coast Mainline, train spotting. The principal argument for HS2 is that the West Coast Mainline is due to overload within a few years.

I was delighted that my wife had saved money by taking the slow train. This would mean more time to catch up on councillor emails and more money to spend on eating out.

In 1965 Dr William Beeching was tasked to close down loss-making railway branch lines. He did not believe the statistics given to him by the railway companies and stood on platforms counting passengers. I follow his example.

At periodic intervals I walked up and down the train counting passenger numbers. The loading was an average of 51 per cent which was exactly the same as I famously counted trains leaving Euston.

It does get busier during the summer. I then noticed that there were very few trains coming in the opposite direction. The line seemed empty. If you want to see a really overcrowding, try getting on a Northern line train in the rush hour.

The pressure group 51m concluded that there is plenty of spare capacity in the West Coast Mainline if a few pinch points are ironed out. The staff on the train shared the same opinion. I could see with my own eyes that there was no need for HS2.

Passenger numbers on London’s tube and buses have started to drop with the advent of electronic communication. As broadband slowly improves this will happen to the rest of the country. I just hope that all political parties see the folly of this HS2 project before the first bulldozer rolls.

CLLR JONNY BUCKNELL
Conservative, Belsize ward