Leeds demoted
HS2 is a huge project and until it is finished the UK has one high speed rail line, linking London with the Channel Tunnel. France linked all its major cities years ago. It is a sign of the pathetic failure to invest in infrastructure through decades of British government.
Now the government is planning to drop or mothball the part of HS2 linking Birmingham to Leeds, because it is too expensive. Once again the inability to build major projects to cost or on time has met up with the Treasury’s reluctance to spend anything at all.
The levelling up agenda has taken a body blow, it was always a slogan rather than an ambition but now it is not even much of a slogan. The biggest problem for the poorer areas of the UK, and there are lots of them, is that they are very badly connected with the wealthy parts.
Average train times to Norwich are slower than the trip to Brussels. Lack of investment in infrastructure is one of the primes causes for low UK productivity, the Treasury doesn’t seem to care.
Mothball the Leeds line and it will never be built, build it and the wealth will come. But while investment is a dirty word this kind of thing is going to keep on happening.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.