Rishi Sunak has finally slayed the white elephant that is HS2 or, perhaps more accurately, cut off its hind legs by scrapping the northern leg. It’s been a tortuous process: remember the proposals to link it with HS1 to Europe (March 2014), the spur to Heathrow Airport, and the Eastern leg to Leeds?
The hope must now be that future policymakers will look back on this debacle and avoid repeating its mistakes. We must ask what this embarrassing episode tells us about the way in which infrastructure is planned in Britain, and the massive, costly barriers to building.
The criticisms, the misery and the embarrassment – all could have been spared if the government had taken its own advice
HS2 is a classic example of what happens when egos and vested interests come before cost-benefit analyses and the needs of the silent majority. Few could have foreseen spending exceed the basic budget at such pace, that expected costs would balloon from £36 billion to £100 billion.
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