That one seems to have been mended on the website, possibly at a cost of thousands. A shame really, I was looking forward to a couple of new platforms at Tivvy Parkway and an extra twin tunnel at Whiteball. If you know anyone who wants 500 "Four Track Now!" T-shirts at a discount, please give them my details.
This whole thing is a bit of a mess to put it mildly. It's hard not to sound political when looking at the details, so apologies in advance if I overstep the mark. But the first thing that strikes me is that someone wanting to position himself as the person who can make the big long-term decisions doesn't advance his cause much by scrapping one of the few big long-term projects we have in the country, and on the basis of short-term data if it wasn't populist vote hunting. Most of the railway is seeing passenger levels back up to the levels that were in place before the pandemic, yet the justification includes the bland statement that we are doing things differently now. Maybe we are this year, but a lot of employers are calling staff back into the office from the desk at home where they slog away in their nightwear (if they have any) between Bargain Hunt and mowing the lawn.
HS2▸ was intended to cope with figures that had been rising steadily over a couple of decades, not a year or two of exceptional numbers. If the extra capacity was ever needed, it's gone now for the long term, especially if a rushed fire-sale of CPO'd land along the proposed route to Manchester is put in place before the next election.
Next, where is "every penny" of the saved money going to be spent? Potholes? Why does an advanced first world country with a thriving economy have so many potholes in the first place? This is routine maintenance work that should have been done by councils and the highways agency before any big problems arose. That wasn't a result of HS2 being built. Electrification between Parkway, Temple Meads and Chippenham? Should have been done (being charitable) four years ago. Being truthful, it should have been done in the 1970s, 80s at the latest. Wellington and Cullompton stations? These have been the subject of long-standing campaigns, and were very close to done deals already. Bere Alston to Tavistock? Should have been well under way, if not finished. Manchester Airport tram link? Opened 2014. Leeds tram network? Cancelled in 2004, along with Bristol's, which now we mention it, why hasn't Bristol been offered another go? There is talk of expanding MetroBust, but the money should really be spent on improving public transport instead. MetroBust gave us a few new fast-ish bus routes at the cost of other more established services that went between the same points A and B, but gave good options to people wanting to travel shorter distances between them. It also rather soaked up some of the diminishing pool of drivers, which is as big an issue as anything in Bristol bus matters.
A lot of the proposed improvements were going to be done anyway, some of them building on the new line between Birmingham and Manchester. The savings will not be as much as claimed because of this. A lot of civil engineering staff will find the diary a little emptier, even if redundancies can be avoided. There will also be substantial costs where contracts have to be paid off, although I don't think much has been signed as yet for the Northern leg. Alstom were already looking jittery about cash flow, and losing any of the proposed HS2 fleet will hit them in
UK▸ .
The biggest loss is reputational. We have shown that mighty Britain, birthplace of the industrial revolution and rail travel, can't build a high speed line like they can in countries all over the world. Why should a big multinational company spend time and the ransoms of many kings working up proposals that can be binned in the twinkling of an eye? That isn't just railways, but everything, and we don't seem to do very much infrastructure for ourselves these days.
Worst of all, anyone rejoicing in the windfall for their community in the Prime Minister's Cancellation Honours List should remember that a tram line or new local station will be a lot easier to cancel than a national high speed rail project.
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