TSSA criticises unambitious ‘local transport fund’

TSSA rail union has accused the Conservative government of ‘totally lacking ambition’ after it was announced that £4.7bn of the money saved from scrapping the northern legs of HS2 will be spent as part of a ‘local transport fund’.  

The Department for Transport claim that this money will be spent on transport projects in smaller towns and cities in the Midlands and North of England. Such projects may include filling potholes and refurbishing bus stations.  

TSSA, the recognised union for directly employed HS2 staff, believe that high speed rail is the only clean and green way to support our local, regional, and national economies in the decades ahead. 

Commenting, Maryam Eslamdoust, TSSA General Secretary said: “The Conservative government has once again shown that it is totally lacking ambition. This redirection of funding will do nothing to fix our crumbling transport infrastructure that has suffered from 14 years of Tory mismanagement and neglect. 

“Rishi Sunak’s government betrayed the North when they announced they were halting HS2 at Birmingham. The government are now tinkering around the edges of their broken system and will once again be leaving the public short changed.  

“The Conservatives have let our transport network fall into disrepair over 14 years of misrule and are now using this money as a sticking plaster to try and hide the damage they have caused. 

“Britain needs a publicly owned green high speed rail network. We need a new government that is ambitious enough to commit to building HS2 in full. The Conservatives have shown that they no longer have the ideas or ambition to run Britain’s transport system, they should make way for a government which does.”