Tories add to north-south chasm - Angus Robertson
The likely impending scrapping of the Manchester leg of the High-Speed 2 (HS2) project is the latest in the litany of failed promises of what would be a major and positive upgrade to the UK’s infrastructure.
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Hide AdHS2 aimed to connect major UK cities via high-speed rail to improve movement of people, delivery of products, reducing car use and the carbon output of the UK.
From the off, the project had an eye-watering price tag. Based on 2019 estimates – which do not consider the impact of Brexit import costs and other global price increases – estimated the original total cost of all the various phases to be over 71 billion pounds. This makes it a tempting budget-saving project to cut despite its potential to improve UK-wide connectivity.
Now, instead of HS2 connecting London to Birmingham; Birmingham to Manchester and, in future, further into the North of England and Scotland, it is likely HS2 will now only serve the London to Birmingham leg.
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Hide AdManchester Mayor Andy Burnham is totally right when he says the scrapping of HS2 beyond Birmingham would create a ‘north-south chasm’. It also undermines the prospect of Scotland having high speed rail connectivity.
Once more, London-centric Sunak showing he has no real interest in ‘levelling up’ the UK outside London.
It also raises a serious question about the ability of the UK to manage major infrastructure projects.
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