HS2 was a waste of money when it was going to cost £50bn - now it is twice as bad: Yorkshire Post Letters

A decision on the future of HS2 is due to be made next month.

SOME years ago George Osborne visited Japan and returned convinced that the UK needed a North-South high-speed railway line (Andrew Adonis, The Yorkshire Post, January 23).

I pointed out to Mr Osborne that the geography of Japan is a lot different to our own, and the benefit to them of a high speed line is self-evident. Unfortunately, this was to be Osborne’s vanity project, and nothing would dissuade the then Chancellor. The original cost estimate, from memory, was just under £50bn, which was bad enough for a project that only reinforced the London-centric mindset of most senior politicians.

Yorkshire’s political leaders have failed to properly make the case for HS2 - Tom Richmond

George Osborne was an advocate of HS2 when Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now, we are told, the cost is likely to exceed £100bn, so making it an even bigger waste of public money. Labour politicians like Lord Adonis and greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham are still in favour, of course, because, being Labour politicians, they don’t care about cost.

Benefits of HS2 will outweigh mooted costs - Yorkshire Post Letters

I can see where Burnham is coming from, as the West Coast line was always slow, but the fastest trains to and from London to Manchester only take two hours, and the other key HS2 destination, Birmingham, is currently only one hour and 30 minutes away.

HS2 say that these times will reduce to one hour and eight minutes, and fifty minutes respectively. We would have to hope that their journey time projections are more robust than the financial ones.

It is now said that the House of Lords could be re-located to either Birmingham or York.

The good news for our peers is that the fastest trains to and from London to York take less than one hour 50 minutes, so there is no need to support HS2 just in case they find themselves moving to Birmingham, and I know which city I would prefer to work in if I were them.

I spent a large part of my working life travelling up and down to London from York when it was British Rail and a lot more efficient than it is now.

I objected to those journeys, once and sometimes twice a week, because it was expected of me.

Even if I was the client and the company I had to see was the supplier, getting them out of London to see me was almost impossible. I would sometimes suggest it just to see the discomfort it caused.

So, moving the Lords out of London would almost certainly thin it out and get rid of those who should have retired long  ago, but I tend to think Boris Johnson is having a joke at their expense.