HS2 Extension Scrapped

 

Some good news! The eastern branch of the second high speed railway phase two has been axed. The first phase is currently under construction and is due to open in about ten years' time. It is not too late to scrap the entire programme, however a lot of damage has already been done, see the background links below. Last Thursday, the government announced that it was going to invest ninety-six billion pounds into the existing railway network in the North Country and Midlands. Along with that, the HS2 link in that area would no longer be built, saving God knows how many billions, but it will be far more than ninety-six. This decision has come under criticism from many areas, including the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a group of local authorities and business leaders. Apparently the loss of HS2 will increase the travel time between stations on average by a whole twenty minutes... Shock-horror! Passengers will have to have two Costas instead of one. Forget the acres of priceless countryside wilderness that will be saved. Actually, if you look at the graph this article publishes, you'll see that HS2 phase two generally makes as little difference to travel duration as does the first phase. On most of the routes it is under an hour. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59292120. I'm delighted this has happened. I sense that the decision makers are finally coming to terms with the very obvious drawbacks of HS2, ones critics like me have been warning them about for years. HS2 is destructive, frivolous, extremely expensive and completely unnecessary. It's not too late just to drop the entire project, even in the middle of phase one. The stations already built could be converted into ice rinks or cinema multiplexes or something. If there is any modicum of concern for the natural world, the economy and common sense left in this world, that is what will happen next. We can but hope.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/10/tree-felled-for-hs2.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/09/ben-emlyn-jones-on-seeking-truth-21.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/09/hs2.html.