North should be UK engine room

H S 2 won’ t mask other rail issues

IT IS a measure of the importance of HS2 to the country’s future – and continuing need to increase capacity on creaking Victorian rail infrastructure – that the Government has not used the cost of Covid- 19 as an excuse for cancelling this £ 100bn- plus project.

This was clear when Transport Secretary Grant Shapps spoke about a desire for the North- South highspeed line to be still viable in 150 years time as he, and Boris Johnson, marked its latest phase of construction.

But the Government can help itself by speeding up HS2 development work on the line’s northern legs and turning it into a world- class showcase for UK engineering or – as The Yorkshire Post put it – the British Bullet.

And Ministers are guilty of naivety if they believe this solves the many difficulties on this region’s railways that twice forced this newspaper to join forces with dozens of rival publications to demand action.

Though Mr Shapps is far more enlightened than his predecessors, many of the problems have not been solved – they’re merely on hold due to Covid- 19 – and the Government should remember this before it backtracks on past pledges or neglects to use the longoverdue Williams Review to improve accountability and performance.

There’s much unfinished business. Yet, while it can be advantageous that Mr Shapps is also Northern Powerhouse Minister, this dual role does not necessarily help when the rest of his transport brief and Covid’s daily challenges are so demanding.

It would be far better if there was a dedicated Northern Powerhouse Minister in the Cabinet – and accountable to Parliament – to co- ordinate all policy from transport to liaising with councils over lockdowns. It might also avoid the PM creating the inadvertent impression so frequently that the North is an after- thought. It’s not. It should be the engine room of this country’s recovery, starting here and now.