HS2’s boss is right – it’s push on or be rubbed out

I’m sure HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins is right to argue that if we’re serious about building a new north-south rail network, we should get on with it. The greater the number of general elections between conception and completion of any infrastructure scheme, the less likely it is to happen. Lord Mandelson revealed last year that Labour only gave this one the go-ahead in 2009 as a political gimmick; Ed Balls’s comments on it last week signalled that an incoming Labour cabinet might drop the project as casually as it was green-lighted in the first place if it doesn’t suit the short-term  politics of 2015.

So the best option for Higgins is to push the boulder uphill a little faster, while finding ways to shave the costs. I think he’s right that greater connectivity and capacity in inter-city rail will help address economic imbalances between north and south, while improving opportunities for growth at both ends; right also that the more northern towns are connected, the more momentum of support there will be.