HS2 costs would rule out connections essential to levelling up

• THE “indignant of the north” response to news of HS2’s long-awaited demise fails to notice:

— that a line into London predominantly benefits London, and so levels down rather than up;

— that no feasible scheme has yet been engineered into Euston;

— that Old Oak Common is better connected to 70 per cent of London than Euston;

— that the East Midlands was originally going to be fobbed off with a stop at Toton, which was remote; and

— that the costs being incurred by HS2 would rule out any of the east-west connections, which most people recognise are essential to levelling up and to long-term economic growth.

Those who want to criticise the abandonment of levelling up should focus on the need for these east-west connections (built to a specification designed for capacity not speed) and the need to repurpose the limited section which is being built so that it forms an integral part of the national network, something HS2 has failed to deliver.

It may be unrealistic to expect major infrastructure within the lifetime of a parliament, but something that cannot be delivered within the lifetime of its proponents is always going to be out of date before it is completed.

Patterns of travel in 2023 are not what they were in 2009, and will be different again in 2041.

ANDREW BOSI, N1