Don’t derail city’s future on a political whim, Boris
IT is a huge mistake to pull HS2 up by the roots, just as it is taking root. The best that can come of Boris Johnson’s ‘fundamental review’ into the high-speed rail line is to introduce significant new costs and delays. The worst case is that HS2 is undermined, wasting billions and further weakening the economy of the Midlands and the North.
I am particularly surprised that Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, is a party to this Johnson exercise in political irresponsibility. Street’s whole regeneration and growth strategy for the West
Midlands disintegrates if HS2 is delayed and cut back – let alone cancelled.
The only reason for this review is to enable Johnson to be ‘all things to all people’ if there is an early general election. Nigel Farage and the Brexit party have said they will scrap HS2, promising to spend the ‘saving’ many times over on Brexit fantasies – and Johnson is never knowingly outbid in that department.
As the architect of HS2, I believe the project is essential for the future prosperity of the UK. It trebles transport capacity between England’s four largest conurbations – the
West Midlands, the North-West, Yorkshire and London – and it dramatically cuts journey times.
Both of these gains are essential for our future prosperity.
The only justified criticism of HS2 is that it is being built 40 years later than it should have been. Japan
opened its high-speed line between Tokyo and Osaka more than half a century ago.
France followed suit in the 1980s, and most of the rest of Europe and Asia have caught up. China now has more high-speed rail than the rest of the world put together.
That’s why the business community, desperate for a first world transport system in Britain, so strongly supports HS2 and is so angry at this latest navel-gazing review.
We are long past the time for an academic debate as to whether HS2 is a good idea. Two years ago, Parliament passed the legislation for the first phase of HS2 from Birmingham to London, by a colossal ten to one majority and the support of all the major political parties.
Billions have now been spent. Construction work has already commenced in London and Birmingham. Thousands of people, from designers and engineers to excavators and apprentices, are at work. Contracts have been entered into.
The issue now is whether, in an act of national self-mutilation, HS2 is to be halted or changed – which will involve halting it – because of the political whim of Johnson and some eccentric advisers. Or whether good government and infrastructure delivery can proceed as they should.
The untenable position of the Government is further demonstrated by the fact that, when Parliament reassembles on September 3, its first non-Brexit business is the Bill to extend HS2 from Birmingham to Crewe, which is already halfway through its parliamentary passage.
Either that Bill should be withdrawn or Johnson’s fundamental review should be cancelled. Proceeding together, they are a ludicrous demonstration that the right hand of government doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, at vast public expense.
Of course we need better management and cost control. Of course there are many other transport and infrastructure priorities. We need HS3 linking the northern cities, as well as HS2.
The Birmingham metro, and West Midlands public transport at large, need dramatic improvement. Electric cars and dedicated cycle infrastructure are essential.
But cancelling HS2 will undermine them too. For it takes ten or 20 years to deliver any major infrastructure project. No-one will again believe a word the Government or Parliament says if HS2 is halted midway through its delivery. Boris, stop messing with HS2. Be our Prime Minister – not prime prat.
Lord Adonis was Labour Transport Secretary and published the plan
for HS2 in 2009
The only reason for this review is to enable Johnson to be ‘all things to all people’