HS2 has been a total mess - and to make it worse train speeds could be cut to keep costs down
HS2 has been a total mess - and to make it worse trains could be made to run slower than initially planned to keep costs down, writes Isabella Boneham.
Under the original plans, HS2 was intended to create high-speed rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and North of England.
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But throughout the years, the scope of the development has been scaled back, all the while our countryside and people’s homes have been demolished for the project.
The eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds was axed first, and then Rishi Sunak's government cancelled the planned Birmingham to Manchester route.
Now the high-speed rail network will just be connecting Birmingham to London, and that in itself is an absolute joke as there is already a fast Avanti train taking around an hour linking Birmingham and London.
To add to the blow of the whole scheme, the BBC now reports that the government is to order the company building the project to consider lower speeds on the line from London to Birmingham.
HS2 has been designed to allow trains to run at up to 360km/h (224mph).
Most high speed trains in this country run at up to 200km/h (125mph), while those on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (HS1) operate at up to 300km/h.
This means HS2 trains could not be tested at their intended operating speeds until a bespoke test track, or the railway itself is complete.
The Department for Transport says the alternative would be to send trains to China to be tested on existing tracks there.
So, HS2 is only half the project it intended to be and could face no sole purpose - having high speed trains to cut journey times between cities.
Last year Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the HS2 project as an "appalling mess", and I don’t think anyone would disagree with her.
I live in Coventry and I have seen the destruction HS2 has caused. I used to love running and walking down a local greenway in Burton Green, but I saw it be totally taken over by HS2 and partly destroyed.
The once peaceful and serene area now sees building work and construction that always seems to be ongoing and never completed.
I saw houses by the greenway be destroyed and families forced to move out. Families lost their homes for this awful project, and it hasn’t even come into fruition.
HS2's chief executive Mark Wild was expected to say this month the line would not be completed until after the current 2033 deadline and it would cost over £100 billion in today's prices, but that announcement has now been delayed until after the May elections. I think it's disgusting.
The whole project should have never been started to begin with.
All it has led to is failure, missed deadlines and ballooning costs. Nature, the environment and people’s homes have been the sacrifice for a project that wasn’t essential, and has proved to be a complete mess.
