The prime minister is said to be considering scrapping the HS2 project connecting Birmingham to Manchester due to its escalating costs
Opponents of this potential decision include former prime minister Boris Johnson, business leaders, and the mayors of Greater Manchester and London, Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan.
However, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has labelled the project as “unmanageable,” and former transport secretary Grant Shapps has emphasised that the government cannot indefinitely add funds if expenses continue to rise
The fate of HS2 has divided political opinion
“Scrapping HS2 rips the heart out of Northern Powerhouse Rail. Basically, it would leave the north of England with Victorian infrastructure probably for the rest of this century,” said Andy Burnham.
“If we’re trapped with that old infrastructure and the southern half of the country gets new lines, that is a recipe for the north-south divide to become a north-south chasm, the very opposite of the levelling up that we were promised in this parliament,” he continued.
A verdict on the future of the Manchester segment of the project is anticipated within the next few days.
The HS2 project has gone significantly over budget
The original estimate for HS2 stood at £37.5bn in 2009 prices, but expenses have since surged. In 2015, a budget of £55.7bn was allocated for the entire HS2 project.
However, current reports indicate that costs may have exceeded £100bn due to recent inflation increases.
The HS2 project has already faced a number of major setbacks. The eastern rail route from Birmingham to Leeds has been reduced to a shorter line terminating in the East Midlands. In March, it was confirmed that construction between Birmingham and Crewe would be delayed by two years, possibly pushing back services to central London until the 2040s.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper also announced a two-year pause in Euston station work due to cost increases, which were projected to rise to £4.8bn.
What were the original HS2 plans?
The original plans for HS2 included three phases. These were:
Phase 1: Linking London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street, with stops at Old Oak Common and Birmingham Airport.
Phase 2A: Extending the line from Fradley in the West Midlands to Crewe in Cheshire.
Phase 2B: An eastern segment from the West Midlands to the East Midlands and a western segment from Crewe to Manchester.
Northern Tory MPs have lobbied for a compromise, favouring phase 2B (Manchester to Crewe) for early construction in the Northern Powerhouse Rail project while suggesting a delay for phase 2A (Crewe to Birmingham).
‘An act of huge economic self-harm’
“It would be an act of huge economic self-harm and be a decision of such shortsightedness that we urge the prime minister: don’t do it,” wrote George Osborne and Michael Heseltine, in a joint article.
“How could ever again claim to be levelling up when you cancel the biggest levelling up project in the country? The remaining stump, little more than a shuttle service from Birmingham to a London suburb, would become an international symbol of our decline,” they added.
A government spokesman for HS2 has said: “The HS2 project is already well underway with spades in the ground, and our focus remains on delivering it.”
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