Sir Jonathan Thompson has been appointed chair of HS2 Ltd. to drive forward the project, leaving his current position as deputy chair.
Welcoming him to the role, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “I am delighted to appoint Sir Jonathan as chair, and with his breadth of experience I have no doubt he will be successful in delivering our shared goals of increasing capacity on our rail network, levelling up our country and driving economic growth for generations to come.”
Sir Thompson, who has made a career working with organisations through financial and transformative situations, said he is “delighted” to have been appointed to the role.
“I look forward to working with our first-class stakeholders and partners in my new role, to ensure this once in a lifetime opportunity fulfils its pioneering potential,” he said.
Elaine Holt will take over as deputy chair. She has over 30 years’ experience in the transport and service industry, including chair and CEO of Directly Operated Railways, chair of East Coast, managing director of First Capital Connect, and non-executive director of Highways England.
HS2
HS2 (High Speed Two) is the name for Britain’s project to build a high-speed rail line across Britain, which is set to begin running sometime between 2029 and 2033.
Phase one of the rail will link London and the West Midlands; phase 2a will link the West Midlands and the North via Crewe; and phase 2b will complete the railway to Manchester, the East Midlands and the North.
Earlier this week (Wednesday, February 8) HS2 Ltd. came under fire when a report released by The Wildlife Trusts said that the project grossly miscalculated its impact on nature.
According to HS2 double jeopardy: How the UK’s largest infrastructure project undervalued nature and overvalued its compensation measures, phase one of the project will cause at least 7.9 times more nature loss than accounted for by HS2 Ltd; and phase 2a will cause at least 3.6 times more biodiversity loss than calculated by the company.
As a result, Dr. Rachel Giles, evidence and planning manager at Cheshire Wildlife Trust and author of the report said: “HS2 Ltd. should urgently recalculate the total loss to nature, by re-evaluating existing biodiversity along the entire route whilst there is still time to change the scheme’s design and delivery.”
In response to the report, a HS2 spokesperson said they don’t recognise the figures from the report “nor do we believe them to be reliable”.
“The Wildlife Trusts have undertaken limited desk research and have not accessed huge areas of land for undertaking ecological survey, in contrast to the ecologists who have compiled HS2’s data.
“Independent experts from Natural England have consulted on our methodology and it has been rigorously assessed by a team of professional ecologists, with the data shared with the independent Ecological Review Group,” they said.
“We’re committed to reviewing our assessment methodology on an ongoing basis and intend to align more closely with the Government’s biodiversity metric once it is published in the coming months,” they added.
