Lancashire Post reporter Freya Taylor jumped on a train to and from Manchester to speak to commuters to get their reaction to the Prime Minister scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester link of the HS2 development.
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00:00 Hello, I'm Brea Taylor out at the Lancashire Post today asking people what they think about the government's decision to scrap the Northern HS2 line.
00:07 What's going to happen?
00:10 The HS2 start off as a good idea, but when they've been scaling it back for a long time, it's unsurprising but huge.
00:19 It's disappointing.
00:22 Well, if they're trying to move to more of a green climate, they'll fund roads but they won't fund railways, then no-one's going to take it.
00:30 Especially to the north, it's going to come up to Manchester and go across the Leeds.
00:35 There's a good chance of shortened journey times but they haven't scrapped it.
00:39 Getting from here to York, which I like to visit, is very difficult.
00:45 None of that line's going to happen now, so I'm going to have to keep taking slow trains or drive.
00:52 It's not really what you want to do but force is your hand.
00:55 It would have been good to see some investment here.
00:58 Another secret that a lot of infrastructure around Preston's got lacked investment for a long time.
01:06 So, once we had none of that money, again, I don't think it's surprising.
01:12 It's poor quality, they've stripped the money out of the north and well, it's a big disappointment but like I say, it's just unsurprising.
01:21 [Indistinct chatter]
01:48 It won't affect me personally because I don't get down to London too much.
01:52 I think for a lot of other people though, especially with a lot of students nowadays.
01:58 I was in Liverpool for a while and even trains were affecting me quite a lot.
02:04 So, I think it was a big project to be scrapped.
02:07 It definitely affected a lot of students, a lot of people working as well, I have to travel a lot.
02:13 Personally, I'm not too bothered or affected by anything like that.
02:19 I think for a lot of people though, there is a bit of that kind of arrogance in the south towards people in the north.
02:32 But for me, it's not too much of an issue.
02:37 I think that would have been great for Brest. There's not too much to do here.
02:43 I think getting a lot of people up here would be better.
02:46 As a city, economically, it's not great. A lot of poverty.
02:52 So, I think that would have been beneficial.
02:57 And now that I guess that it's not going to happen, it could affect a lot of industries.
03:06 It wouldn't affect me, but I would have liked to see, now I have to go to Birmingham to look at it.
03:11 I don't want to take a spot.
03:13 So, get around. I don't think it's fair.
03:16 Because there's people here that travel every day, they buy yearly tickets.
03:21 And that costs a few thousand pounds.
03:24 So, you shouldn't get a good service.
03:26 1980 trains, and then all you want to do is look at some electric trains, which we've already got.
03:35 So, we're not really benefiting.
03:36 And also, they made way on the land and made people sell their houses and land.
03:42 Which they didn't need to.
03:44 So, it's ruined a lot of people's lives.
03:47 If I can see one guy, he lost his house, everything.
03:50 And now his business and everything's gone.
03:53 And he's looking at the house and it's just sitting there empty.