Starmer to reconsider building scrapped HS2 route

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/22/labour-to-reconsider-building-scrapped-hs2-route/

Posted by Dalecn

14 Comments

  1. Bit of a misleading title, but I can’t change that.

    I could of told you for free that ending it in Birmingham is fucking stupid but so could basically anyone with even decent knowledge of the railways in the UK. Really hope common sense prevails and 10 platform Euston is completed alongside a route to Manchester/Crewe can be combined with Liverpool Manchester route.

  2. Mammoth-Ad-562 on

    The cost and time for this project is insane. How do other countries always put us to shame when it comes to huge infrastructure projects?

  3. Just Fucking Do It

    We need some ambition. We need, as a country, to do things because they’re right, not just because they’re easy. HS2 is one of those things. Make domestic flights out of London a thing of the past.

  4. A major project that ran under budget and before schedule was the Tyne Tunnel in Newcastle. The reason for this was the project manager did not tell anyone, not even his own team, what the budget was or when it needed to be finished for. So every contractor he negotiated with had to base their price on the cost it would take them to do the job, rather than how much they thought they could get from a known pot of money.

    I’ve no idea why we don’t have maglev trains in this country, you should be able to get from Edinburgh to London within two hours for £60 return.

  5. OrangeOfRetreat on

    If this doesn’t get completed we are never seeing high speed rail construction until the next century.

  6. There are a lot of thing starmer needs to reconsider or he’s gonna hand the keys back to the tories.

  7. Britain invented the railway and what remains of once great infrastructure is just sad.

    Have some ambition. There is no reason this country should have anything less than the best rail.

  8. I thought the Tory’s sold off all the land that was purchased for HS2? (At an obviously reduced rates for their mates…)

  9. sober_disposition on

    Just scrapping all the pointless concessions to the South East NIMBYs (like the astronomically expensive tunnels and decorative bits) would go a long way towards covering the cost of doing the rest of the HS2 route. 

    However, a fast and reliable trans Pennine line would probably be far more valuable, but there’s no business case for that because it doesn’t include London (which is the only thing Westminster considers to have any value). 

  10. Terrible-Group-9602 on

    He’ll build the northern part because that’s where the Labour voters are

  11. With what money? We have a national debt of nearly £3 trillion, which we have to pay interest on. How about we pay that off first?

  12. Really doubt it.

    After all the talk of limited finances – they can’t really commit to billions on this.

  13. bluecheese2040 on

    Happy to see it built…Happy to see it scrapped. Prefer to see transport improvements outside of London tbh. Boosting the economy of the nation by having a train to London seems…well yet more for London.