I cannot believe that for 1 second. Sure, governments are incompetent but none of them are THAT incompetent.Yes I know, which is why John Bishop left his Manor house
But none of this was taken into account when HS2's costings were first produced, plus all the people who would fight against a project that would make their life a misery and substantially reduce the value of their home
Not if you just pick a sum out of the air and let your donor's takes billions of tax payers money for fuck all in return apart from party donations.I cannot believe that for 1 second. Sure, governments are incompetent but none of them are THAT incompetent.
Maybe they underestimated/under budgeted, but there's no way they didn't consider the costs of buying up the necessary land/properties. That would be like saying they forgot the cost of the track - it's unthinkable.
Absolutely everyone involved in the scheme seems to have said that it wasn't worth starting without the Northern bits.
Knowing it would start in the South, this was supposedly hammered home - If you start there, you CAN'T cancel the rest as most of the payback is due to the Northern sections. If you're considering cancelling them, don't start the fucking thing in the first place.
So, what do they do?
Come off it mate, they will have had an absolute army of civil servants and external consultants being paid a fortune to come up with the plans and costings. The planning costs alone will have run into tens of millions. It is absolutely inconceivable that they just "forgot" the cost of the required land/property purchases. It's a ludicrous suggestion.Not if you just pick a sum out of the air and let your donor's takes billions of tax payers money for fuck all in return apart from party donations.
Technically Crossrail was much more challenging. Tunnelling across parts of London, lots of very complex interfaces to manage etc. HS2 was needlessly made more complicated than was necessary due to the route being designed by committee. Lots of limitations were imposed by politicians due to pressure from voters and nimbys in the home counties so that they didnt lose votes.
The french pretty much draw a line and build the railway we fuck about for ages trying to satisfy every individual.
If they do cancel it, I would hope that the money is ring fenced for the north, as once again we've been short changed after being promised the so called Northern Powerhouse which now seems dead in the water.
HS2 had the capability to free up the overall rail network for another 144 freight trains a day with each train taking 72 hgvs off the road. I genuinely don't get the anti HS2 sentiments at all expecially by people who live in the North.When I do the M6 its usually the evening/weekend so probably dont see it at its peek no, But that being said, How does HS2 fix that issue?. all the trains that travel to sub stations along the west coast main line will still be there as there's a lot of demand for them. there would be capacity for some freight in at night when there are no passenger trains but all in all if Freight is the issue then dedicated freight lines would have been a far better and cheaper option.
Even HS2's own website says they will take 300,000 trucks worth of freight off the roads. over 3 years. so 300 a day. and that will be Best case. which isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.
Cancel and give the councils the cash
No, its obvious that the only thing politicians are interested in is their own survival.If Sunak announced a ringfence as you suggest (which makes sense to me), would anyone believe him?
No, its obvious that the only thing politicians are interested in is their own survival.
If they dont spend the money on HS2 they wont spend it somewhere else that benefits the majority. The money will go to their inheritance tax cut (worth at least 7.2Bn) which plays well to their traditional supporters. Nothing more than a bribe, ensuring that they still retain some seats after the next election.