‘HS2, Britain’s largest ever transport white elephant, is a complete disaster’

• HIGH SPEED 2 has just received a red rating from the government’s own Infrastructure and Projects Authority. This means that “Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable.”

The IPA report states that HS2 has “major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery”.

The IPA report emphatically confirms what everyone already knew. HS2, Britain’s largest ever transport white elephant, is a complete disaster.

It represents government planning and consultation at its very worst. At huge cost, it has caused untold suffering to those along its route, as well as major environmental damage, for no achieved benefit.

A 19th-century solution to a 21st-century question no one was asking, its fetish of speed has been eclipsed by businessmen’s ability to communicate instantly via Zoom without having to travel.

Why has HS2 survived until now in the face of its own disastrous record? The explanation lies in the fact that it was pushed through, and has been sustained, by an unholy alliance between the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, exempting it from meaningful political debate. The Greens and UKIP have the honour of being the only parties to have opposed it.

HS2 may have seemed sense when interest rates were at a record low. After Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, with inflation and interest rates rocketing, it is a ridiculous waste of scarce public money.

While its projected cost has grown exponentially to over £100billion, its delivery date has disappeared into the far distant future.

Already, in the face of insoluble problems there, HS2 has stopped work at Euston. It is surely now time to put an end to the scheme as a whole.

Cannot the two main parties agree, in the public interest and as an exercise of common sense, that enough is enough?

If not, why does not the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, Sir Keir Starmer, who knows the damage HS2 has done in his constituency, change Labour policy and come out against it? Because £10billion of public money has been wasted to date is no reason to waste £100billion or more.

It is galling to remember HS2’s origins. A plan championed by Labour’s Andrew Adonis, now the absurdly named Lord Adonis of Camden Town, was taken up by the Conservatives in their 2010 manifesto as their major infrastructure project.

This was not because it was needed or because there was a public demand for it. It was adopted for a purely selfish and negative reason.

If the Conservatives had announced a third runway at Heathrow as their major infrastructure project, this would have resulted in Zac Goldsmith losing his seat at Richmond.

MARTIN SHEPPARD, NW1