High-speed drain

It’s astonishing what politicians can find money for when they wish. Defence is cash-strapped. Preparations for a no-deal Brexit might be going on but are practically invisible. And yet high-speed rail (HS2) has been allowed to claim more and more money, as if it were a favourite child.

Estimated costs have risen from about £43billion to around £56billion, and one leaked report suggested it could hit more than £80billion. Today, we disclose that the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, Sir John Armitt, believes ministers will have to spend another £43billion on local transport to make HS-2 worthwhile.

Sir John’s recommendation raises a point that HS2 does not address: the shockingly low quality of rail transport outside London, as well as the woeful under-investment in the road network. HS2 in itself does nothing to fix this. The first phase, between London and Birmingham, not only focuses a vast sum on money on one route, but a commuter route to the capital. The old rule of planning is unchanged: London comes first, and what all the evidence suggests is that this will mean more people commuting to London rather than the other way around.

This newspaper warned back in 2012 that the economic case for HS2 had “not yet been made”. Six years later, it is clear that the price keeps going up and has now reached obscene levels. The country is at a crossroads, with Brexit looming. We can’t go on with a vanity project that is so expensive and where the costs have risen so high that they outweigh what benefits there are. Who will be the first Cabinet minister to break ranks and call HS2 out for what it has become?