Liam Halligan’s piece on HS2 is spot-on (‘The wrong track’, 9 February). I am surprised to find myself for once on the same side as Andrea Leadsom.
Most of the argument about HS2 focuses on cost; I’d like more on the pros and cons. Any projected benefits seem to be based on an assumption that more people will travel the route, because the travel time will be less. Sir Colin Buchanan showed the fallacy of this argument as far back as the 1970s in his dissenting appendix to the Roskill Commission report on a new airport for London. Add to that the error of assuming that in ten or 20 years’ time we will be living our lives much as we do now and the case for HS2 evaporates.
The only thing we know about our future way of life is that we don’t know what it will be. Moore’s Law still applies: technology will continue to transform our lives, including our travel choices.
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