The Student Room Group

Do we need HS2

Will it really help level up? Surely people will just live further out of London and travel into London everyday, Birmingham will be commutable even Manchester will be. I just think it is a waste of money giving we can work from home, do meetings online. Has high speed in other countries balance the power up?
HS2 is one of the most pointless and wasteful projects the UK Government has ever come up with.

They claim to want to level up the country but the North of England and other parts are suffering with poor transportation infrastructure but their golden idea is to spend billions on train line from London to Birmingham and some stations up north.
I swear 1B was spent on HS2? If they wanted better connectivity to places they could've spent that money helping opportunities to grow within those places so more people could actually consider moving closer to there. It is completely pointless.
Original post by hss_2004
I swear 1B was spent on HS2? If they wanted better connectivity to places they could've spent that money helping opportunities to grow within those places so more people could actually consider moving closer to there. It is completely pointless.

Not £1B but the predicted costs are close to £100B.
A colossal waste of tax payers money for a questionable economic benefit.
Original post by wired_1800
not £1b but the predicted costs are close to £100b.

yikes lol bye this gov is a joke
Original post by hss_2004
yikes lol bye this gov is a joke

It is a joke
I can see why they thought of the idea originally - if anything it would be great for Birmingham as many big London firms open up branch offices or move altogether.

But in the current climate with the Covid bill needing to be settled at some point, I think the government should cut its losses and scrap it. I would imagine HS2 was justified with pre-pandemic figures of rail use; a lot of big firms are not renewing office leases and are permanently working from home thus negating any need for good transportation links. We'll have to wait to see how many big employers follow.

Also a £100bn train line from London to Birmingham, with costs likely to soar even higher while I imagine Phase 2 will be dropped at some stage, is not what the UK necessarily needs. I haven't heard from any major groups or companies who passionately support the project yet we've all heard the intense and vocal opposition to it. That probably says a lot.
HS2 is a continuation of HS1. The aim has always been to connect the two.

The rail infrastructure in SE is at capacity. It’s therefore quite difficult for any key north of London to get to use HS1.

It’s a lot of money. I question how we were able to conduct huge infrastructure projects with a pick and a shovel a century ago. However that’s the benefits of bureaucracy and red tape. Lots of non value add middle management and lawyers.

I’m struggling to think of a major transport infrastructure project that hasn’t benefitted the economy.

You also need to consider that the green lobby don’t want us to fly anymore. So unless you’re plan is to all sit at home forever in a day, you need to do something to boost the economy.
Reply 9
I live in Leeds and will use phase 2b so yes, yes we do need it.

The route is longer than it needs to be though which adds a little cost, Manchester should spur from Sheffield so you get rid of the western line north of Birmingham.
Reply 10
Of course we dont. Would it be handy? Sure. But it would be far from the end of the world if we didnt have it. If anything the money should be used to upgrade existing lines - a much better value for money for the tax payer given the cost of this grotesque white elephant is more than most countries make in a year... It is an offensively expensive waste of money in my book that is being done for political reasons and vanity. Nothing else.

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