Now it’s a one-legged white elephant!
I have long been of the opinion that the worst-possible, yet most likely, outcome of the soaring costs and poor management of the HS2 project is that the railway will not be built beyond the West Midlands; at least not for a generation or two, or possibly even never. This outcome was realised when, last October, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced in his speech to the Tory Party conference that the Government had decided that all parts of the HS2 ‘Y’ network were to be cancelled, save the London-West Midlands section currently under construction.
In support of this decision, the Government published a Command Paper (CP 946[1]). In his foreword to this document Mr Sunak summarises the reasons why he clearly regards HS2, which he states is taking up to a third of the entire transport investment budget, as the wrong priority. He sees the prime transport investment requirement as improving everyday local transport, such as bus services, reducing congestion on local roads and tackling their maintenance.
In addition, he points to changes in circumstances that have further weakened the case for HS2: a total project cost that has more than doubled, repeated construction delays that have been reported, and a significant change to travel patterns due to the pandemic, and persisting since, which has relieved pressure on long-distance train capacity and reduced the benefits of the scheme as these primarily accrue from business travel.
In what must be seen as a scathing reproach to the Tory PMs who have preceded him since 2010, he labels HS2 as “a scheme to fix one of the things about transport in the Midlands and North that least needs fixing: the fast train to the capital” and describes the project as one that “traps enormous sums of money that could be far better spent elsewhere”.
I think that this must be the first time in almost fourteen years of opposing HS2 that I am able to agree whole-heartedly with views expressed on the project by a government minister. However, if his condemnation of the leg to Manchester is accepted as valid, then it must surely apply equally, if not more so, to the London-West Midlands section. Presumably, the principal factor that has saved Phase 1 from cancellation is the advanced stage of civil works construction and equipment ordering, which probably means that contract cancellation and restoration costs plus money already spent would be close to completion cost.
What a pity that it has taken so long for the scales to fall from the eyes of the many government ministers who have been in a position to cancel the project in total at various review points since its inception. After all, the reasons being put forward by the PM for the cancellation of the routes north of the West Midlands have been arguments that I, and my fellow campaigners, have been advancing since HS2 first emerged as somebody’s bright idea.
So, the failings of our political masters have left us with the legacy that is all too plain to see in our devastated countryside and borrowed money that our descendants will have to pay back over many years, and all for what is now a one-legged white elephant that addresses the wrong transport issues.
[1] Network North: Transforming British Transport, CP 946, Department for Transport, 4 October 2023 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65290f86697260000dccf78b/network-north-transforming-british-transport-print-version.pdf)
