The HS2 rail project is out of date and out of control. But it can still be halted | Simon Jenkins

The HS2 rail project is out of date and out of control. But it can still be halted | Simon Jenkins
Britain is cutting care homes and children’s centres, yet blowing £80bn on a railway line that has failed every viability test

Vanity projects are like foreign wars. They ensnare politicians and drive them mad. A high-speed rail track from London to Birmingham and beyond was first sold to David Cameron in 2009 as a glamorous alternative to a third runway at Heathrow, which he had pledged never to build. HS2 was stupid then, and has grown ever stupider ever since.

Related: HS2 is not a useless railway, merely the stupidest | Simon Jenkins

Such is the power of a private sector lobby that no minister has dared stop it. HS2 has become Concorde on wheels

Related: Is the passion for HS2 just about big boys and their toys? | Catherine Bennett

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Source: Guardian Transport

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