Please someone take the decision to cut the national losses on this

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

Costs in London escalate faster than they do in the North -

The cost of the project was only ever going to go up so by starting in London they had more chance to have a possibility to mitigate current & future cost escalation.

To say nothing of the politicians wanting to benefit soonest with faster travel back to their constituencies'

I vaguely remember an old episode of Yes Minister - where someone was asking why there were far superior transport links from London to Cambridge but only one decent road to Oxford - the reply was, something like, in recent history there had been more ministers for transport that had studied in Cambridge & only one that studied in Oxford -

Call me cynical, but I suspect there's far too much money to be made on this project for it to be cancelled - as it damn well should be.

The cash this will cost might have just made the existing rail network fit for purpose.

The whole thing stinks.

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

The journey time is secondary to it's carbon net zero effect. It's intended to take cars off the road.

For what it's worth I agree with you EH.
This is a longish article putting both sides.

[Link]

There's been a few "informed speculators" who purchased property and land on the proposed route, only to have it compulsorily purchased for vastly more than they paid for it. Plenty of corrupt people in-the-know have already shafted the tax-payer, with plenty more to come.
It's like any of the Government projects I can recall. The Channel tunnel, The 2012 Olympics, all massively over-budget.

It seems the HS2's vision to link London with 'the north', might only go as far as Birmingham

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (10 Mar 2023 6.18pm)

I disengage, I turn the page.