HS2 is a monumental white elephant and vanity project

How true.

What that quote doesn’t say, of course, is whether things were done better in the past or worse.

So I would ask you to cast your mind back to the year 2009. In many ways, it was an unremarkable year. The country was in the grip of a financial crisis brought about by the banking crisis, H1N1 swine flu was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and John Bercow was elected as the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons.

And 2009 was also the year that Gordon Brown’s Labour Government announced the creation of High Speed Two Ltd.

Back then, when train travel was still a thing to get excited about, Sir David Rowlands was appointed chairman and was tasked with examining the case for a new high-speed line. He was told to present a potential route between London and the West Midlands and the report actually suggested the line could be extended to reach the north and on to Scotland.

Of course, Brown lost the 2010 general election, leading to the formation of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government but that didn’t spell the end of the plan.

Very early in the coalition, the Government announced a review of HS2 and in 2012, after a public consultation, the scheme was given the go-ahead.
Every government since has backed the project despite the soaring costs.

When HS2 was first proposed, the estimated cost was £37.5bn but it has crept up and up as the years have gone by. According to the Financial Times, the official budget for the entire line is £98bn in 2019 prices but a review last year led by civil engineer Doug Oakervee into whether the project should go ahead put the cost at not less than £106bn. 

It actually went up £1.7bn in the past year because of the effects of the pandemic as work was suspended at most HS2 sites at the start of the pandemic. Social distancing measures caused access delays and reduced productivity which added to increasing costs.

I have strong views about this project and given it has the fingerprints of Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems all over it, this isn’t a party-political point.

I believe it is a monumental white elephant and a vanity project that belongs in the ‘foreign country’ that is the past.

And it would appear I am not on my own with that opinion. Just look at the recent by-election victory for the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.

This needs to be put in some context. The constituency was previously solidly Tory in the Conservative Party’s south-eastern heartlands.

But according to the conversation.com website, HS2 was a significant factor in the Tory defeat. The impact of HS2 was cited by many observers as the line goes right through the constituency and threatens to seriously disrupt life for many who live there.

The Liberal Democrat candidate opposed the project, even though her party is in favour of it. There’s some real political expediency for you.

And much closer to home, Esther McVey, the Tory MP for Tatton, is a long-term and vocal opponent of the project. She questioned the prime minister about the validity of the project recently, suggesting the money would be better spent on improving broadband connectivity across the country.

She said: “When High Speed 2 was first proposed, the estimated cost was £37.5billion, the latest estimated cost is now over £150bn and rising.

“Is there a price that the prime minister would accept that High Speed 2 is no longer value for money, or is he determined to build it irrespective of whatever the final cost will be?

“Wouldn’t it be better to put this white elephant project out of its misery, get rid of High Speed 2 and instead deliver high-speed broadband? Reliable one gigabit capability at a fraction of the cost to every household which would be much more useful for everyone in all our communities.”

That’s a good point well made and is all the more relevant now given the effect the pandemic has had on working practices.

A couple of years ago, not many of us had heard of Zoom or Microsoft Teams yet online virtual meetings look like they are here to stay. For goodness sake, I even ‘attended’ a speed awareness course virtually.

And many businesses are seriously considering so-called hybrid working systems with employees in the office for a couple of days a week, working from home for the rest of the time.

And that depends on fast, reliable broadband, not fast trains.

I know an estimated £9bn has already been spent on HS2, but it’s time now to cut our losses and ditch HS2.

If the country has £100-150bn to spare, perhaps it could be put to good use improving local transport infrastructure or maybe funding free school meals during the holidays or even giving nurses a proper pay rise.

It’s all a question of priorities and a vanity project, waste of money train isn’t top of my list of priorities.