European groups against the High Speed Train join forces in Hendaia

Thirteen organizations from the Italian, French and Spanish states joined forces yesterday at the Basque locality of Hendaia (Hendaye) before a demonstration against this kind of mega-infrastructure.

Snapshot of the demonstration held at Hendaia (Gara)

They reject the high speed train because it causes a ecological, socio-economic and human disaster, and because these projects disdain citizen participation. They denounce that in search of a justification for these kind of abusive transport structures the institutional promoters use many false hypothesis.

As alternative, the popular organisms demand improvement and optimization of the already existing railroads. In a further step of criticism they suggest that a reduction of transportation, along with a deep transformation of the economic model are much needed.

These points have been written down in a declaration known as the Hendaia Charter, which was signed by all present groups and ten other organizations across the continent. The Hendaia Charter has been translated to many languages already (so far I have only been able to locate the version in Basque).

Sources: Gara (sp), France24 (en).
Other references: AHT Gelditu! (eu - sp - fr)