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The facts have changed, says Rishi Sunak, as he scraps HS2 leg
(www.bbc.co.uk)
Another win for the Northern Powerhouse.
How is this a win?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
"The facts have changed," the PM has said, as he confirmed he was scrapping the huge infrastructure project of the West Midlands to Manchester leg of HS2 high speed rail.
Addressing his party conference, Rishi Sunak said the project had come from a "false consensus" that links between big cities were "all that matters".
It was the PM's first speech to party conference as Conservative leader, and his hour-long address marked the start of a new and more risky approach from Mr Sunak.
If Mr Sunak can convince voters that he offers a better chance of a new approach to government than Sir Keir Starmer, he may yet arrest the persistent and wide polling gap between the Tories and Labour.
Talk about the scrapping of HS2 overshadowed the conference, and the PM's confirmation was accompanied by news that nearly £4bn would be reallocated to transport schemes in six northern city regions.
The decision will anger some including local leaders - such as Andy Street, the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands - and businesses in Manchester.
The original article contains 575 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
"We cannot afford this" - if we want to spend money on tax breaks for the rich.
Addressing his party conference, Rishi Sunak said the project had come from a "false consensus" that links between big cities were "all that matters".
This is based on a (quite likely deliberate) misunderstanding of what HS2 is for (a myth that has been helped by misnaming it).
It's needed to take intercity trains off the lines that local trains need, so that local trains can actually run instead of being squeezed in between fast trains and delayed every time the fast trains are. This is why HS2 should have been built from the north southwards, because that's where the capacity for local trains is most sorely needed.
Improving the existing lines won't change the laws of physics.
I disagree with you wrt starting in the north. The WCML south of Birmingham is also desperate for relief and if you tried running HS2 trains down to Brum and then onto the WCML it would just make things worse.
Everywhere that isn't London is desperate for adequate local train services. Starting in the North would have made it impossible to do exactly what they have just done.
Sure, but it also would've meant you couldn't properly take the intercity trains off the existing lines, since they'd just go back onto the capacity constrained WCML south of Birmingham, and thus you couldn't really do a whole lot about the capacity until that section was built.
HS2 is about freeing up capacity for local trains, by taking fast trains off the tracks the local trains need but can't use because they have to squeeze into the gaps between fast trains. No, you won't get the full benefit until the entire line is built but that is always going to be true. The idea was never just about shuttling more people to London, quicker. It was about making Northern cities functional.
Except most people on those intercity trains are trying to get to or from London, so it doesn't make sense to just run Birmingham to Manchester. You have to run to London to get that capacity benefit.
Once more, it is about capacity for local trains, not intercity trains.
But to get that capacity, you're moving the intercity trains off of the existing lines.
Yes.
And you basically can't do that unless those trains are going to London
Easy change at Birmingham.
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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