EXTINCTION REBELLION (XR) delivered a mock HS2 train set to Boris Johnson yesterday in a creative attempt to urge the Prime Minister to rethink the “catastrophic” rail project.

Manufactured by “Boris,” the train set’s packaging reads “ancient woodlands destroyed” and costs “only £100 billion,” with the warning that it “will create more CO2 than it saves.” 

XR activists were joined by naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham as they brought the toy set to Downing Street along with a petition opposing the HS2 scheme.

They warned that HS2 would result in the destruction of over 100 ancient woodlands, amounting to “the largest deforestation process that we’ve undertaken in the UK since the first world war.”

Mr Packham said the construction of the new railway comes at a time when “we know we should be reforesting the environment, not taking it down.”

The planned railway between Manchester and London has proved to be one of the most controversial infrastructure projects of recent years.

Multiple campaign groups oppose the plan, citing environmental damage and growing costs to the taxpayer.

HS2 is way over budget, with projected costs jumping from £34 billion in 2012 to £88bn today.

Yesterday, XR toured central London aboard a bus, branded with the words: “What every child doesn’t want this Christmas,” alongside a picture of the toy HS2 train set.

Explaining the bus stunt, XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook said: “HS2 is the worst Christmas present the new government could give to our kids in the face of our climate and ecological emergency. 

“Destroying ancient woodlands and countryside to make way for a project that will literally choke us environmentally and economically for decades […] is utter madness at this time of extreme urgency.”