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If we cancel HS2 now, Britain would waste a decade of work to revive regional
rail networks

   Across the country, plans are already being drawn up to take advantage
   of the extra space HS2 will free up on existing lines
     * John Peace
     * Friday 27 September 2019 10:34 {{^moreThanTen}}
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   In November 2007 HS1 made it possible to travel at 300 kilometres per
   hour all the way from the centre of London to the city centres of
   Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. So it’s easy enough to understand why
   two years later, when plans were being developed to link the centre of
   London to the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, the
   Department for Transport should decide to call them HS2.

   A decade on, it’s clear our country’s first intercity high speed
   railway needs a stronger message to help the world understand the
   transformational effect it will have on the UK economy.

   “Capacity” may not be the most exciting argument, but it’s certainly
   the most compelling. Not only does HS2 provide more than half a million
   extra seats every day on the new high-speed line, but it is a relief
   valve that will ease pressure on our existing overcrowded and
   overloaded network.
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   By moving long-distance traffic onto HS2, we free up space for faster,
   more frequent and less crowded services on commuter networks used by
   millions of people every day.

   Some 73 stations across the country stand to benefit from the released
   capacity HS2 provides. Crucially, 54 of these places are not on the new
   high-speed network, their communities may rarely or never, use the high
   speed line, but their local station will benefit from HS2 every day,
   busting the myth purported by HS2’s critics that the network won’t
   benefit “normal” travellers.

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   PA

   If you live in Coventry, HS2 creates space for new direct rail
   connections to the major cities of Derby, Sheffield, Newcastle and
   York, and less crowded and more frequent trains for commuters
   travelling to and from Birmingham. For people in Lincoln, currently
   poorly served by our existing rail network, HS2 means space for more
   regular, direct services to London, as well as more local trains to
   nearby Newark and Grantham.

   Across the country, plans are already being drawn up to take advantage
   of the extra space HS2 will free up on the existing network with better
   connections across and between our regions, in locations as dispersed
   as Shrewsbury, Hull and Oxford.

   To cancel HS2 now would undermine a decade’s worth of plans to improve
   our regional networks, the vast majority of which either intend to
   utilise HS2’s new infrastructure, require the capacity it releases, or
   will capitalise on the growing number of people using the railway every
   year.
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Read more

     * HS2 may be a mess, but it’s still essential for the future of UK
       rail
     * Why Boris Johnson’s inquiry will give HS2 the go-ahead
     * I’ve spent a decade fighting HS2, and the rationale is getting
       worse

   The Oakervee review and HS2 Ltd chair Allan Cook’s project stocktake
   offer a necessary, considered and transparent view of how much HS2 will
   cost, and how long it will take to build. However, they also highlight
   the need to fully quantify HS2’s benefits and the value it will bring
   to communities in every region. It is my view that, to date, the true
   benefits of HS2 have been grossly underestimated.

   This is true of HS2’s environmental credentials. The extra space it
   creates on the conventional network is enough for 144 extra freight
   trains to run every day, which can in turn transport over 2.5 million
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   We must learn lessons from the past. This time around, the UK’s regions
   must not be short changed and left to fight amongst themselves for
   scraps of investment. Without HS2 there is no Northern Powerhouse Rail,
   there is no Midlands Engine Rail. Without HS2, the great economic
   powers of the Midlands and the North will remain isolated from one
   another, unable to achieve their huge economic potential.
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   sustainable transport network for generations to come.

   So the next time any of us is asked “why HS2?” we must answer, because
   the future prosperity of our country depends on it; because our
   regional communities desperately need it; because the Victorian railway
   network cannot serve the 22nd century. HS2 will connect our biggest
   cities, but it is also an investment in our towns and villages. It’s
   part of the biggest upgrade of regional train services in over a
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   Body Midlands Connect
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   HS2 |  railways |  Northern Powerhouse |  infrastructure |
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