YP Comment: HS2 '“ can Theresa May afford not to intervene?

If, however, the Tory leader chooses not to intervene, she risks the costs spiralling out of control because of poor planning – and regions like Yorkshire not making the most of the potential economic growth opportunities that high-speed rail is supposed to offer the North.

HS2 plan is flawed as Yorkshire MPs press for a rethink

Like Hinkley Point nuclear power station, and Mrs May’s genuine concerns about national security, today’s highly critical report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee places the onus on the PM to now summon transport chiefs to 10 Downing Street so she can cross-examine them on the pitfalls ahead.

On August 7, she signed a letter to Sarah Hayward – leader of Camden Council in London – in which she said she was “fully committed” to projects “like HS2 which will provide vital capacity for rail passengers and our transport system, as well as a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebalance our country’s economy”.

At the time of writing, what the new PM may not have known is that HS2 Ltd is only “60 per cent confident” that the first phase, from London to Birmingham, will be built on time by 2026 – and this was before its chief executive Simon Kirby, Britain’s most expensive civil servant, announced he was quitting his £750,000 a year role to join Rolls-Royce.

This assessment is at odds with the Department for Transport’s appraisal that the plans are “on schedule”.

Yet, if the £55.7bn cost of HS2 is to be justified, it has to be shown to benefit the whole country and not just the “privileged few” in London to paraphrase Mrs May’s now familiar political mantra – indeed there are considerable concerns that this scheme will ultimately begin in the capital and end in the West Midlands.

In this regard, today’s PAC report could not be more sceptical about the initial plans for the second phase from Birmingham to Sheffield and Leeds.

Not only does it conclude that the costings are vague, but MPs still to be convinced of the benefits of trains stopping at Sheffield Central, rather than the planned Meadowhall station that has now been scrapped, and the physical impact of a new railway line on blighted communities in South and West Yorkshire like Mexborough and Crofton where homes may have to be demolished – or lose value because of noise.

The criticism does not end here. Planned rolling stock may have to slow down – defeating the whole object of faster travel – when HS2 trains travel along existing tracks and MPs are “unsure” how services will link up with the planned high-speed service from Leeds to Manchester.

What next? Clearly a new chief executive needs to be appointed – and the Department for Transport needs to reconcile these matters before it publishes updated plans for the North later this year. Its response is eagerly awaited.

Given the cost to taxpayers, and the implications for householders throughout the country, forward planning by Ministers and officials needs to be far more rigorous and they need to satisfy the Prime Minister that HS2 can still be built on time and on budget in its entirety.

If not, focus needs to immediately switch to accelerating plans for a high-speed railway from Yorkshire to Lancashire.