Stephenson’s rocket will fire up HS2 at last – The Yorkshire Post says

How ironic, therefore, that it is a politician of the same name – Andrew Stephenson MP – who has been tasked with getting HS2 back on track after the £100bn project was given the Cabinet’s blessing.

And while the newly-appointed HS2 Minister is an unknown quantity, he, too, will deserve a place in railway history alongside his famous namesake if he can “regain the public’s trust” – his first objective.

An admission that Europe’s largest infrastructure project has been mishandled, it is also telling that he used his first speech to call for “the entire energy” of the Government to get fully behind the 250mph line.

The inference is that this has not been the case as HS2 becomes a defining test of the Johnson government’s ability to better manage construction and costs.

Sending out a clear message that there now needs to be “a realistic, pragmatic and hard-nosed management of the costs”, it is also reassuring that Mr Stephenson has pledge to improve engagement with communities along the route and ensure that HS2 dovetails with Northern Powerhouse Rail to maximise the economic benefits that improved connectivity should provide.

Time will tell if Mr Stephenson is as good as his word – the regret is that it took the Government too long to face up to the shortcomings that had become so glaring to taxpayers and opponents.

But he will help his cause, still further, if he takes this opportunity to rebrand HS2 – the name is almost as toxic as Brexit – as the British Bullet and ensure that it becomes the 21st century exemplar of the cutting-edge engineering excellence that George Stephenson, and others, developed two centuries ago.