MEDIA House International has been appointed to help promote an alternative to the HS2 plan to develop faster rail connections between northern England and London. The Glasgow-based communications consultancy has been brought on board to support the High Speed UK (HSUK) programme led by Colin Elliff and Quentin Macdonald. The engineers reckon they could develop a network that covered a wider range of destinations than HS2 and involved less disruption during the construction phase by following existing routes like the M1. Media House International executive chairman, Jack Irvine, said: “From the initial concept of HS2, logical minds reached the inescapable conclusion that rather than bring about George Osborne’s beloved Northern Powerhouse, HS2 would simply provide a quicker route to London thus inflating that city’s economy even further to the detriment to the northern English cities.”