The High Speed 2 (HS2) project, Britain's second high-speed rail link after the Eurostar to St Pancras, had been a veritable snake in the grass. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak blew the whistle on the project on Wednesday at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the Midlands metropolis that HS2 was intended to link to London. Launched in 2009, the project has suffered successive delays and seen its cost drift from £37 billion in 2013 to over 100 billion todayThis is in line with inflation.
In the end, only the first section, currently under construction as far as Birmingham, will be completed for entry into service around 2031. " I'm cancelling the rest of the HS2 project" he said, drawing the ire of the Mayor of Manchester, who had hoped to see the 300km of high-speed track brought into service in 2040. The planned branch line to Leeds, which foreshadowed a possible extension to Scotland, had already been abandoned in 2021.
Rishi Sunak has promised that ". every penny of the £36 billion saved (Editor's note: €41bn) will be reinvested in hundreds of transport projects" . Improved links would benefit commuter trains, trams - with a project in Leeds - and also roads, by developing bus networks. Less costly, the new rail project envisaged by the government would focus on existing rail lines, with the aim of reducing journey times between northern cities such as Manchester, Bradford, Sheffield and Hull. Twelve billion pounds, or €14 billion, would also be channelled into improving the Liverpool-Manchester line.
A setback that tarnishes the image of their regions for elected representatives from the North
HS2 was launched to reduce journey times and resolve the thorny issue of overloaded freight and passenger lines between Manchester, Leeds and London. However, this ambitious project suffered from ever-increasing costs with each new delay, as well as from the construction of too many engineering structures in order to towns that are actually quite close to London. The journey by Intercity train currently takes just 1 hour 45 minutes between the capital and Birmingham, and around 2 hours 45 minutes to Manchester.
Since Rishi Sunak's announcement, the elected representatives of the towns in the regions concerned have been furious. against the impact this decision will have on the economic world and investment intentions in the North of the country. The image of England would also be seriously tarnished in their eyes. The Conservative government is also being attacked for the billions already spent on preparing the second phase of the line, including the acquisition of hundreds of plots of land and homes.
By the end of 2019, the Conservative party had won a landslide election victory thanks to the swing in these traditionally Labour lands following the promises made by Boris JohnsonThe Prime Minister of the time, to undertake major investments designed to reduce the economic and social divide between the north and south of the country. HS2 will not be one of them...
