Briefly, I cannot recall whether I wrote it elsewhere or simply voiced it to a few folk elsewhere at the time.
LONDON-centric project that promised the earth (minutes shaved off from london to the north) with not exactly much use (stops) as a service outside of a few key stops along the route.
A project that the UK pays for as an entirety for the use of the few it seems.
News has been rumbling on that the "Northern Powerhouse" (promises & puffed out chests) is no more, thus london has got its end signed, sealed, delivered for travel but the promised northern connections are not there & nor will be.
A nice way of paring back the reported overspend of the project, I wonder how that will be reported in the future?
Living near a high speed track for much of my life, & having crossing points for locals reduced from manned, to automatic to "removed" (cutting off roads & adding more time than a HS trip saves for every vehicle caught in the crossfire) all in the name of safety, I was rarely able to use the network living outside of the "design element" & sometimes had to resort to going down to london to get on another train to get back home to east anglia (bad on a sunday when the train hold ups mean you actually were meant to get back on saturday ..from scotland)
Thus my view may be deemed tainted, but I could never justify a filthy diesel train (avoided as much as possible) & the electrification of the lines nearby without green power just seemed like riding big diesel still.
I'm now left wondering how far north the prep-work (ripping out eco-systems) has got & what it costs if the HS2 "scheme"(ing) has by sleight of hand accomplished all it ever intended?
What happens now? re-greening?
or simply laying "lesser" !? infrastructure over the same route? ..sell off for crowbarred compulsory purchase to land hedging investors to sell back later?
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