Shahrar Ali publicly questions Mayor on HS2: Plus Answer

On 7 March 2012, People's Question Time took place in Hammersmith Town Hall (pictured). Hundreds were in attendance to hear the Mayor of London flanked by the London Assembly Members (including Greens Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson) answer questions from a packed hall.

I asked a question about HS2. Here is the sound:



Shahrar Ali: "What is the Mayor going to do to address, or impress upon his dear leader, the needs and wishes of tens of thousands of Londoners who are opposed to the tunneling under their houses as a result of the totally unaffordable, environmentally damaging and overall CO2 increasing high speed rail vanity project which is HS2? The country's broke!"

In his reply to me, Boris Johnson said he is in principle in favour of high speed rail, but what he said to the government is 1) that he wants to see a business case that really stacks up, 2) wants to see mitigation and real protection for people in West London, and 3) he cannot conceive of HS2 without a new tube line at Euston to take people beyond there.

Boris Johnson's answer is here:



A full transcript and professional video recording of the event will be made available on the City Hall website here.