People of South Hampshire may feel that the cancelling of HS2 is only something to do with some place up north called Manchester. 

If so they could not be more mistaken. Of course it is over budget. 

The Government had to stop the project for nearly two years due to Covid and then cope with record inflation, both factors out of their control. The current line was built in the 1830s, so therefore a line built 200 years later was going to be an improvement and with faster trains.

The purpose of HS2 was to provide Britain with a modern high-speed train line similar to those that the continent have had for decades. 

Secondly it was to free up existing lines so that more freight could be carried by rail, thus taking it away from the roads and reducing pollution. Much of the freight container traffic arriving into Southampton docks originates in the north, especially from the Manchester area. The current rail system struggles to find paths due to lack of rail capacity particularly in that area. Container ships in Southampton docks do not wait for trains that might turn up. To believe that the HS2 trains can use the existing track into Manchester is a non-starter. The rail system there cannot cope with the existing trains now.

A major factor in the cost overruns is that the government kept changing the requirements. The expensive Euston station was thrown out. They could not even agree the number of platforms. The line was then going to end at Old Oak Common rather than Euston. The main line north of Birmingham was to bypass the rail bottleneck of Crewe, until Conservative MPs in Cheshire realised they might lose votes, so it was changed to pass through Crewe. All lines north of Manchester and onto Leeds were cancelled out and they would be served by an HS2 extension across to the old Midland line, but that has now been axed.

We will now see an increase in road container freight from the north down the A34 into Southampton and other ports. 

Until last week the Prime Minister was a keen supporter of HS2 and voted for it.

The real reason for cancelling HS2 into Manchester and beyond is that the Prime Minister can now scatter lots of sweets to as many places as possible. One might even believe that an election could be coming up and his party are desperate to hang on. Suddenly road potholes are to be sorted, but there would not be any if the government had not held back the funding from local councils.

HS1 was overspent but nobody that has used it and the Channel Tunnel would wish it was not there. Similarly the new Elizabeth Tube Line. It is magnificent, a total step change in transport in London. The country that gave the world railways now cannot even complete one new high-speed line that was approved by Parliament.

Crawford Wright, 
Chapel Road,
Swanmore

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