Liam Halligan

The wrong track | 7 February 2019

There are growing signs this inter-city vanity project could be scrapped

No one is in any doubt about the problem facing Britain’s railways. Over the past decade, rail fares have risen twice as fast as salaries. Yet across the national network, overcrowding is at record levels, cancellations are spiralling and passenger dissatisfaction is at a ten-year high. Yet ministers are about to start pouring £4.5 billion a year, every year for a decade, into building a single new railway route: HS2. To put this into perspective, the amount annually maintaining and upgrading the rest of the rail network is £6 billion. It’s a trap that we can, even now, avoid.

Much has changed since the scheme was launched in 2010. Official cost estimates have almost doubled — from £33 billion to £56 billion. And even this might be modest: independent industry experts put the eventual bill above £100 billion. If true, then Britain will have achieved a world record — the most expensive railway ever built.

The controversy has so far focused on the shabby treatment of those with homes on the HS2 route, subject to compulsory purchase. The fat taxpayer-funded salaries of HS2 executives have also caused -concern. But with demolition work underway in London and Birmingham, and construction soon starting in earnest, the rationale of the project itself is being questioned at the heart of government. The UK’s new super-train could soon be called to a halt.

It has already survived some near-death experiences. Had Andrea Leadsom been -elected Tory leader after the Brexit referendum, she would have pulled the plug on the whole scheme — a policy seen, by fellow senior Tories, as one of her most attractive political positions. She and David Lidington, -Theresa May’s de facto deputy, have been openly questioning the case for HS2. Both represent constituencies on the London to Birmingham section, where there is much anger about disruption, and the precious little that is being promised in return.

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