DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Scaling back HS2 now is a ticket to disaster trends now
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Ever since HS2 was mooted, the Mail has expressed reservations about the merits of building a high-speed line.
We asked whether a paltry reduction in journey times was really worth all the years of chaos and disruption.
Most of all though, we were dismayed by the rapidly spiralling costs – £100 billion and rising – money which surely could have been better spent modernising our creaking transport infrastructure.
So after years of dither and delay, we fully understand why some may feel that continuing with this ludicrously expensive vanity project would simply be throwing good money after bad.
That said, we firmly believe that for the Government to even consider scrapping the Birmingham-to-Manchester route at this stage would be utter madness.
Ever since HS2 was mooted, the Mail has expressed reservations about the merits of building a high-speed line (File image)
The whole point of HS2 was to level up the country and turbo-charge left-behind cities, narrowing the North-South divide.
Having already cut the proposed link between Leeds and the Midlands, to bring down the axe on the Manchester leg now would only invite accusations that the North was being abandoned altogether.
By carving up vast swathes of the British countryside in Tory-supporting seats, the Government has already angered its traditional supporters – all the while creating a gravy train for armies of incompetent executives, lobbyists and assorted lackeys.
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