Chris Hallam is a partner at CMS Law Firm
The government’s continued refusal to guarantee the western section of HS2, after the eastern section has been amputated, leaves a once ambitious and transformative infrastructure project resembling a kind of Shakespearean drama of part tragedy and part comedy the same
We understand that ministers are concerned about spiraling costs and serious delays in a project which (check the notes) they recently postponed for two years, thereby causing costs to escalate. Imagine. It’s fair to assume that this batch won’t disturb the brain trust’s annual meeting.
“The lame art of continually postponing and canceling infrastructure is one of the things this government has excelled at”
The continued and prolonged delay of the project – full name “High Speed 2” – generates a level of irony that would make Alanis Morisette squirm. It might rain on your wedding day, but not so much a train, unless it’s the one attached to the bride’s back.
Of course, and despite the moniker, High Speed 2 was never really about speed. The marketers’ focus on high speed, rather than high capacity, was the worst part of the brand since the Westminster Transport Forum shortened its name to an acronym, although it’s a perfect synopsis of the latest installment of the infrastructure buffoon government.
Don’t get me wrong, halving the journey time between Manchester and London is certainly worth it, but the project was always primarily concerned with increasing rail capacity and relieving pressure on the overcrowded and creaking rail infrastructure between London of 185 years. and our northern cities. The bit of speed was an added bonus, at marginal extra cost compared to a conventional railway.
A slash and burn approach
The continuing ambiguity about HS2 is a a further betrayal of the – now laughable – ‘Levelling’ agenda and a continuation of the government’s apparent ‘slash and burn’ approach to infrastructure investment. Some say it’s just a cynical plot to gain political capital later by making life more difficult for the next batch. Maybe, but the lame art of continually postponing and canceling much-needed infrastructure is one of the things this government (and to be fair, most governments over the years) has excelled at. The gains and accolades of launching infrastructure projects are never enjoyed in the short term, so why splash the cash now to impoverish the next man’s nest? resident at number 10?
Of course, if you stay in power long enough, the consequences of those earlier decisions start to catch up with you. The legacy of the coalition government’s decision to do the Building Schools for the Future program in 2010 is that thousands of students are sitting in huts or stuck at home for fear of RAAC concrete falling on their heads. Hundreds of thousands more in dilapidated obsolete buildings.
More recently, we have seen cuts to the road building program and former Prime Minister Johnson’s “40 new hospitals” dissipated far into the future, although arguably this is not a cut as it was predominantly a fabrication in the first place.
Just last week, the government took an ax to its green agenda and in doing so managed to screw up carmakers in a way normally reserved for the construction industry. It seems the only net zero still relevant to Downing Street is the number of people who actually voted for this guy.
With the opposition committed to canceling and then committing to HS2 and in between restoring the eastern section, all within a couple of days, it’s not like they’re any more coherent.
So, after all the work, effort and hard-spent taxpayers’ cash, will we get our new transformative rail or HS2 will end up being nothing more than a 42-minute shuttle service between the country of Shakespeare and an insignificant railway depot nine miles west of central London? Who knows. HS2 to be, or not to be, that is the question.
