Beyond hopless

As expected, the PM has cancelled the northern leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester.

To cut costs.

Yet the money already spent will be wasted.

Sunak said a huge range of other schemes will be given the go-ahead, like the tramlink from Manchester to the airport. Which we will come back to.

Within 24 hours, schemes that had apparently been given the green light, it turned out, had not. And that tram link? Opened nearly a decade ago.

I have said in a previous post why HS2 was needed and important, as it would free up capacity in a single sea change moment, whereas fixing bits and pieces, like upgrading the WCML, would take a decade or more, and require wholesale weekend and holiday closures.

All which HS2 would avoid.

HS2 had its issues, it could and should have shadowed the M1, like HS1 does with the M20, but the Government wanted a 250mph railway, even when the first generations of trains would only go 187 mph. The higher speed meant bigger curves, and NIMBYISM meant putting tracks in tunnels turning HS2 into the most expensive railways line in the world, and the reason it was scrapped.

These were decisions by the Government, this Government, and previous ones where Sunak was Chancellor.

The ever changing scope also added costs, costs that made the project all the more likely to be cancelled. On top of that, Sunak is cutting the number of platforms at Euston, if it gets there, from 12 to six, thus limiting its use, and selling back land north of Birmingham that the line was going to run on, meaning no subsequent Government could ressurect the project.

And this from a PM not voted for my the electorate, and Parliament not having a vote either.

It seems Network Rail was not consulted, and only learned of the scrapping when the announcement was made, and thatannouncement made for short-term political points-scoring, rather than what the country needs in the long terms, the second half of the century.

France has all but abolished short haul domestic flying, instead people travle city centre to city centre by high speed rail.

Instead Sunak has condemmed the country to decades of trundling on infrastructure that was built when Victoria was still alive.

No HS2 means more traffic, more cars, more lorries, more pollution, more poisoned children, a warmer planet. Quite how Greens got themselves into a position when they opposed it, is beyond me.