On the plus side, Manchester Mayor Burnham is generating support for some kind of additional rail link Manchester <–> Birmingham. This is on the basis that something is better than

Fingers crossed the gov don’t sell off the already purchased land north of Birmingham. HS2 never made any sense if it didn’t go north of Brum.

Fingers crossed the gov don’t sell off the already purchased land north of Birmingham.

You’ll be totally unsurprised to hear it’s already underway as part of their scorched earth policy before they’re booted out

Government WILL sell HS2 land despite Andy Burnham’s plan for a new line on it

I’m sure the land will end up in the hands of various Tory donors, who’ll pay peanuts for it

And Starmer has already ruled out reviving the scheme:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67924577

Difficult to see how he could commit to it, given the salting of the earth thats presently underway

The whole thing is an utter shambles! If it wasn’t from its conception, then in its present state its just a complete white elephant

HS2 never made any sense if it didn’t go north of Brum.

HS2 didnt make any sense the moment it stopped connecting with HS1. At that point the London > Birmingham stretch should have been canned and a new (probably not called HS2) plan for Brimingham > north should have been devised.

HS2 didnt make any sense the moment it stopped connecting with HS1. At that point the London > Birmingham stretch should have been canned and a new (probably not called HS2) plan for Brimingham > north should have been devised.

None of it works if it doesn’t connect to London.
Northern Powerhouse Rail worked well – at the initial stage when it would connect various Northern cities with Leeds and Manchester where the two spurs of HS2 would terminate (with options to extend up to Scotland and, from Manchester, across into North Wales).

Then Leeds got binned so NPR instantly lost a significant chunk of its Benefit:Cost Ratio (and there’s a separate argument about why BCR is a terrible means of measuring massive and ultra-long-scale infrastructure projects anyway…).
Then Manchester got binned so NPR simply doesn’t work in any meaningful sense at all other than the north desperately needs rail investment and improvement which is now being done piecemeal.

Connection of HS2 to Euston was the least worst option given that connection to St Pancras and HS1 was near impossible. Termination at Old Oak Common is a disaster because it’ll overwhelm the already-at-capacity Elizabeth Line.

Whole thing has been an absolute shitshow overseen by a succession of Transport Ministers who have never cared in the slightest about anything other than cars

In what will come as a complete shock to absolutely no-one, it turns out that it costs more to cancel a scheme and end up with nothing than it does to proceed with the scheme and have a functional railway at the end of it all.

Parliamentary Accounts Committee verdict on HS2

Scheme now very poor value for money after Northern leg cancellation, says @CommonsPAC https://t.co/h5qTe0vmRA pic.twitter.com/9VVOWbDmnH

— Transport Intelligence (@TransportXtra) February 8, 2024