From the country where the Daily Mail Online tells us it's people cannot afford pasta, this is perhaps how it should be done, and at a fraction of the cost:-

'Italy launches new Rome-Milan High Speed train 2 hours 45 minutes'.

Its quite a sight, too:-

[Link]

Really you are missing the EU dear B, can't keep away can you.

Did you see all the pasta trees lining the streets?

The shear mis-management and incompetence is staggering. Allowing 'informed' people to buy property on the proposed route and then Compulsorily Purchase at vastly inflated prices with Mega-bucks to "those-in-the-know".
Cost re-evaluations and lack of consideration for price fluctuations has added to the financial woes. Re-routing and cutting of sections. Contingency budgets blown to smithereens.

So the North looks like it will not be getting the HS2. Why not just wind that track section around London and the South-East where all the money is ?

I disengage, I turn the page.

Its doing more damage than the blitz did.

A monument to the tory years.

No wonder ex-tory PMs Johnson May and Cameron, Mayors Burnham, Khan Northern Mayors Labour etc. all want it to continue.

At least Stalin's canal did actually connect two places.

All these people high on other people's money want to spend into oblivion.

The poor connectivity at Euston an obvious flaw, who is seriously going to want to go to Old Oak Common to go to Birmingham.

Or even better, just tarmac over the HS2 route and make a motorway with service stations that sell diesel and petrol. And Ginsters pies.

I disengage, I turn the page.

There are different company's with the trains in italy, Italo is the best, they make British Rail look like the flintstones, but i suppose that is what you expect from a third world country

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn