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   Various campaign groups are protesting HS2's proposed route between
   London and northern England ( Getty )

HS2 bypasses key towns and cities, giving 'inconvenience of high-speed trains
without chance to travel faster'

   The proposed high-speed rail line will not stop at several towns and
   cities on or close to the route, with trains whizzing past East
   Midlands airport
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   Announcing his preferred route, the transport secretary, Chris
   Grayling, said: “The full HS2 route will be a game-changer for the
   country.”

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   benefits from the £56bn project — people in many towns and cities on or
   close to the proposed route will get all the inconvenience of
   high-speed trains without the chance to travel faster themselves.

   In France and Spain, local opposition to the high-speed network is
   typically assuaged by punctuating the lines with stations serving
   scattered rural communities. For example, while Meuse TGV station on
   the new high-speed line between Paris and Strasbourg is served by only
   three trains a day in each direction, the district south of Verdun
   appreciates the chance to reach the capital in an hour.
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   Britain is a much more crowded and compact nation, and adding stations
   would have significantly higher benefits. Yet on the first stage of
   HS2, there will be no stations between London and Birmingham.

   “There are a handful of stations on the entire HS2 line,” says the Stop
   HS2 campaigning group, “because they slow the railway down too much.”

   The line passes barely a mile from the centre of Aylesbury in
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   to and from London than the present three-per-hour service.

   North of Birmingham, on the newly announced map of HS2, a station is
   planned at Manchester airport, even though this involves a difficult
   dog-leg and routes the line through the heavily built-up southern
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   west.

   Yet the eastern arm of HS2 is now planned to go almost past the front
   door of East Midlands airport — without stopping. More than 10,000
   passengers a day use the airport. A short way north, the citizens of
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