HS2 and ominous silence over eastern leg to Leeds – The Yorkshire Post says

Asked by Labour’s Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi to give such an undertaking as MPs debated the HS2 Bill, the Minister simply sat and squirmed in his seat. It said it all.

Nearly a year after Boris Johnson – and his Cabinet – gave their full commitment following a full reappraisal of high-speed rail, the Leeds link appears to be going backwards. No longer an ambition, it would be hard for Ministers to describe at as an aspiration in the wake of this non-response.

Now some will contend that other high speed infrastructure, like the provision of broadband, is the new national priority in the wake of the Covid pandemic. But it should not be the case of one project over another – both are fundamental if the North is to have the 21st century infrastructure that it badly requires if it is to fulfil its potential as the place to live and work.

As this newspaper has previously argued, HS2 is an important part of this and would command greater public support if it was rebranded the ‘‘British bullet’’ and came to define UK engineering excellence. It’s not. It’s increasingly doubtful that it will ever reach the North based on the track record of Ministers since its relaunch in February 2020.

And it begs this question – just how will Ministers overhaul existing Victorian railway lines, in order to future-proof the network and increase capacity, if their inability to learn from past mistakes sees HS2 here shunted into the political sidings?

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