AS both predicted and feared last issue, the Government did go on to announce at the Conser vative Party Conference in early October that it had cancelled HS2 north of Birmingham due to rising costs.
Without an apparent sense of irony, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the announcement in Manchester, the city where the north-western arm of HS2 was due to end. And to deepen the sense of irony even further, the conference was held in the Manchester Central Convention Complex – which, until 1969, had been Central station at the end of the Midland Main Line from London St Pancras.
The facts have changed, said Mr Sunak, citing rising costs and a change in travel patterns since the pandemic. But what we are left with now is the worst possible outcome, as it will solve few of the problems for which HS2 was first proposed while probably making things worse.
For example, high-speed trains that continue north of Birmingham will now join the West Coast Main Line just north of Lichfield at Handsacre. But once on the WCML, the non-tilting trains will be restricted to 110mph – unlike the current fleet of ‘Pendolinos’, which could theoretically cruise past at 125mph.
Ah yes, Mr Sunak’s supporters might say, speed was never one of the major selling points of HS2, it was the extra capacity. In which case, the new plan fails again.