Prepare for the next instalment of the great HS2 fiasco.
Stories suggest the chancellor is preparing to shuffle the off-balance sheet financing deck, find £1bn-plus and give a thumbs up to start boring the tunnel from Old Oak Common to Euston.
Got to spend that money taken off pensioners on something, I suppose....
That decision will be motivated mainly by the sense that the high-speed line, already stripped of its northern legs by Rishi Sunak, would be even more of a national embarrassment if southbound passengers had to hop off at an industrial estate five miles west of central London.
They'd probably be safer.
But, if the tunnel is a go, we’re on to the far trickier question of what is to be done with Euston station.
Like HS2 itself, Euston seems to defy every attempt to impose control on costs. Two designs have already been ripped up. The last version came out at £4.8bn when the brief was £2.6bn.
I went via Euston on my trip to Chester, hadn't visited for a while. It's supposedly been 'refurbished' but it's not for the better. Seating with no view of the departure boards is just one obvious faux pas....
The final irony of the HS2 debacle will come if the next blueprint for Euston ends up looking like the original that was rejected as unaffordable in 2020. That, laughably, is probably the way to bet.
We are rapidly becoming a joke of a country.
Too late. We are already a laughing stock. But in a bit of good luck it isn't just us it is the rest of the West as well.
ReplyDeleteGiven the endless problems we face as a country (Do I need to list them?), I really struggle to understand why we're still borrowing money to fund this monstrous white elephant. Has nobody the guts to say "stop"?
ReplyDeleteI never saw the point of HS2. I live south of London, too far from a railway station to walk, and there is no bus service. So, to get there I have to drive and park. The parking charges are horrendous. The price of the train ticket into London ditto. On one occasion my destination was Nottingham. I arrived at my local station but the parking charges had gone up, and I didn't have the change (It's better now it is RingGo). By the time I'd sorted that out, I'd missed the train, and my pre-booked ticket wasn't valid for the next one. I said Fuck It, and drove. I was walking into my destination before the train arrived in Nottingham. On another occasion, going to Manchester, I found that all car parks were full. I drove home, picked up my GPS, then drove to Manchester. I was only 30 minutes after the train - had I gone straight there, I would have beaten it.
ReplyDeleteA further advantage of the car is carrying kit or luggage, and add a passenger and half the cost is immediately saved.
If going further than Manchester, I'd still drive - or fly.
As a tax payer who doesn’t use the trains I don’t see why I have to subsidise this hapless entity which was privatised years ago.
ReplyDelete"But in a bit of good luck it isn't just us it is the rest of the West as well."
ReplyDeleteIt's like some contagious madness.
"I really struggle to understand why we're still borrowing money to fund this monstrous white elephant."
I can't believe it was ever a serious proposal, like anon.
"I never saw the point of HS2."
Ditto.
"...I don’t see why I have to subsidise this hapless entity which was privatised years ago."
And makes a loss unless bailed out. Any real 'business' would have gone to the wall years ago.