https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/07/government-does-not-understand-how-hs2-will-function-as-railway
Parliament’s spending watchdog says cancellation of high-speed line’s northern leg raises ‘urgent questions’
“Government does not understand” - standard current-era (c.2010 onwards) Tory.
Cancelling a chunk of HS2 in a way that at the time and increasingly since comes across as “on a whim” suggests a total lack of understanding not just of rail but of national infrastructure, our economy and our people.
HS2 never had to be some kind of souped up bullet train service. All HS2 had to be was an increase in capacity, with any added speed as a bonus. Four track instead of two track - so that fast trains didn’t get stuck behind stopping services. That’s all that was needed.
This country is ridiculous. We are a tiny island. How hard is it to connect up all the bits with road and rail? The roads are falling apart and our once world-leading and world-beating railways are outdated, poorly routed/connected and economically constrictive.
HS2 never had to be some kind of souped up bullet train service. All HS2 had to be was an increase in capacity, with any added speed as a bonus. Four track instead of two track - so that fast trains didn’t get stuck behind stopping services. That’s all that was needed.
The speed isn't what makes it expensive, and it actually does make sense. If you look at the original Y layout vs the existing mainlines, the East Coast Mainline is more direct to Leeds than HS2, so it needs to be faster to match that travel time. Faster travel times also induces travel which has various economical and societal benefits. It will also help to shift more travel from other modes.
I do wonder what the UK would be like if we simply abandoned the notion that we can do large infrastructure projects. We'd save a bunch of money and time in paper work. Swathes of people up and down the country would no longer be compelled to block planning applications. Just think! And then we could put that money to better use like increasing MPs salaries..... /s.
We don't need to stop doing them (we need way more). We do need to stop incentivising lowball cost estimates at the bidding stage and then complaining that the cost is so much more than expected.
And we need to stop outsourcing all the big jobs. There's no need for anyone to make a profit out of infrastructure that is absolutely necessary for the economy to function properly. Govt needs to relearn how to project manage and regain the institutional expertise required to do it well.
No we need big name projects for exactly that reason, a hundred billion pounds is nothing just to give the people who complain and block everything something to do - if they were free roaming then the rest of the country would grind to a halt over night.
We cancelled the plan and now we don’t know how it’ll work!
I understand some degree of malice but at what point does it veer back into true stupidity?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 has raised “urgent unanswered questions” and the government does not yet understand how the £67bn high-speed railway will now function, according to a scathing report from parliament’s spending watchdog.
Rishi Sunak announced the cancellation of the northern leg of the line to Manchester in October, promising to divert £36bn into alternative transport schemes known as Network North, including filling potholes.
The cross-party committee said many ramifications of the decision remained unknown, including the impact on other promised rail schemes and how land compulsorily bought to build north of Birmingham would be disposed of.
Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said: “The decision to cancel HS2’s northern leg was a watershed moment that raises urgent and unanswered questions, laid out in our report.
Our plans for Euston have already received extensive support from the private sector … we have repeatedly made clear we will continue to deliver HS2 at the lowest reasonable cost, in a way that provides value for taxpayers.”
Work on the first phase of HS2 beyond Euston is continuing, with significant milestones including the start of construction of Birmingham’s new Curzon Street station and the main Chilterns tunnels almost excavated.
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