The monument for a decade and a half of Toryism.

[danumdon]

Business travel by train compares rather well with internal flights when you factor in the "city centre to city centre" times in total radiating from a London terminus.

The failure of HS2 was in deciding to build a brand new railway through areas classed as AONB. when the original remit was to have a high speed dedicated line from North to South, as soon as the original dedicated passenger HS was reassigned they should of scrapped the original route and just built additional fast lines (125mph-150mph)alongside the existing WCML. This would of had the benefit of increasing capacity for fast and semi fast services that currently have to fight of track access with slow freight traffic as well as building in additional capacity for freight and possibly passenger services to develop over time in line with zero carbon policies.

Would of cost a darn sight less for the same benefits. we don't need 200mph trains in this country, its too small to gain any performance benefit out of it. The additional savings could of gone into modernising the current network in many areas, achieving a much larger cost benefit to the state and taxpayer.

Which spendthrift government originally envisaged this crazy expensive idea?

[SydneyRover]

Dear Mr neutral, which government cannot manage itself never mind the country and rail contracts.

[danumdon]

Dear Mr neutral, which government cannot manage itself never mind the country and rail contracts.

Is that you admitting it was originally a Labour idea, i knew you'd be disappointed.!

[SydneyRover]

Dear Mr neutral, which government cannot manage itself never mind the country and rail contracts.

Is that you admitting it was originally a Labour idea, i knew you'd be disappointed.!

Happy to go with the facts dd, who has wasted the most money, the project should have been half built by now, I stated in the early stages that if it wasn't started from the north it wouldn't get done.

[SydneyRover]

''Royal Assent was granted for Phase One of HS2 on 23 February 2017. The Full Business Case for the first phase of the scheme between the West Midlands and London, 'HS2 Phase One, was approved in April 2020.16 Nov 2022''

https://www.consultanz.com.au/hs2-high-speed-rail/#:~:text=Phase%20One%3A%20London%20to%20West%20Midlands&text=Royal%20Assent%20was%20granted%20for,was%20approved%20in%20April%202020.