UPGRADING the West Coast mainline and increasing the length of trains is a simpler and less expensive way of ensuring the UK has a high speed rail network, a campaigner said today.

Hilary Wharf of the newly-formed HS2 Action Alliance – set up to oppose plans for a brand new high speed railway line to run through the heart of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – said there would be no increase in demand for train travel and called for better communication networks to be set up as an alternative.

She said demand for railway travel had become “saturated” and it would be better if businesses were able to communicate using video conferencing via faster broadband connections.

Mrs Wharf said the £17.8billion proposed to be spent on the scheme could pay for nine years of A&E services or 85 per cent broadband coverage for Britain.

Research carried out by University College London suggests the number of journeys made and the number of passengers using trains has stayed the same for the last 15 years, although the distance travelled by each person has increased.

Forecast figures for High Speed 2 suggest a 267 per cent increase in the number of rail passengers by 2033 – of which 134 per cent will be “purely because of HS2”, it was claimed at a summit of councillors and campaigners at Aylesbury Vale District Council offices today.

But passenger numbers on the High Speed 1 line, which connects London with Europe via the Channel Tunnel, are below the projected figures predicted in 1998.

Mrs Wharf suggested upgrading the current West Coast mainline could create a high speed link without having to build an entirely new line at the cost of billions of pounds.

She said lengthening Pendolino trains on the West Coast mainline to 12 carriages would increase capacity on the route by 65 per cent – and replacing first class coaches with standard class would also mean more people would be able to use it.

An existing line can qualify as a high speed route if trains are capable of running along it at 125mph, she said – and a brand new line would count as a high speed route if trains travelled at 155mph along it.

“We can give politicians a high speed rail solution and it doesn't have to be High Speed 2,” said Mrs Wharf.

Praising the Action Alliance's “professionalism” on its research, Wycombe MP Steve Baker said the business case put forward by HS2 Ltd had become “a pantomime”.

Others also spoke out against the proposed railway line at today's meeting.

Chris Richards of the Chilterns Conservation Board said: “The AONB is a natural resource and its destruction makes us all the poorer.

“The business case has some 'dis-benefits' not recognised by HS2 Ltd – 70 per cent of water supplies are drawn by Chiltern aquifers and the idea of risking polluting water is of great concern.”