Kent's HS1 shows how HS2 could benefit the North

One of the main concerns about HS2, apart from its vast cost and disruptive effect on the countryside, is that in shortening distances between London and the North, it might lead to the capital further draining talent and money from other regions.

Not so, says an official HS2 review leaked to the Times this week. The draft report by Doug Oakervee, a former HS2 chairman, says that ‘some of the greatest changes to connectivity are the non-London connections’ north of Birmingham, and concludes that cities in the North and Midlands are more likely to benefit from the project than London. He’s right – and Kent’s HS1 shows why.

The line from St Pancras to Ebbsfleet in Kent faced similar objections in the 1990s, before it was fully completed in 2007. But since then, it has benefited destinations out of London, not the capital itself. The route, servicing high speed trains from London to towns all over Kent, has had a transformative effect on the county, helping to revive its dilapidated and once moribund towns and secured the prosperity of its already successful areas.