I rarely change my mind but, on balance, I’m now in favour of HS2.
I know it’s going to cost a fortune and the costs will probably double or even triple before the whole thing (including the Northern bit) is finished in 2040.
Nevertheless I’m willing to overlook that for several reasons.
One, shaving 20 minutes off the time it takes to travel from London to Birmingham (or vice versa) never impressed me.
If however it is true that HS2 will allow many more trains to run, increasing capacity (and therefore seats), that makes far more sense, even if the estimates are bound to be wrong (because they always are).
Two, I do think the government has a duty to offer the Midlands and the North something in return for all those votes they hoovered up at the election.
It might make sense, though, to come up with some local projects (in addition to HS2) that are deliverable by 2024 rather than offering an IOU dated 2040.
Three, I’m a sucker for big civil engineering or construction projects and HS2 is that and more.
Think of the M25 (easy to mock now but a major achievement when it opened) and before that just about every motorway beginning with the M1 in the late Fifties.
It’s impossible to exaggerate the impact of the motorways. Journeys that took many hours can now be done in half the time, maybe less.
OK, they have eaten into the countryside and can be desperately dull to drive on, but imagine travelling around Britain without them.
Think of the congestion in our towns and villages.
The biggest construction project, in UK terms, was probably the Channel Tunnel and what a success that’s been.
I understand it was paid for with bank loans and a small amount of private capital, but not without financial difficulties.
So there has to be a role for public funding too.
In aviation Concorde was one of the biggest white elephants of all time, commercially at least, but throughout its lifetime it was the source of enormous national pride.
Partially funded by the taxpayer, who would begrudge that beautiful aircraft a penny, even with hindsight?
The same might said by US taxpayers of the NASA space programme, the moon landings in particular.
On a more local level, where I live there is a £2 billion road development that is on time and, as far as I know, on budget.
If it eases the congestion and reduces the accidents that regularly blocked or closed the old A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge it will be worth every penny.
What else?
I’d like to see plans for Boris’ Garden Bridge across the Thames revived. It sounds like fun and we need a bit of that.
There’s nothing wrong with a good folly. Some of the most famous are still with us, and adored, centuries later.
The Garden Bridge is a bit London centric however so we also need some big projects in other parts of the country. Any suggestions?
Personally I’d like to see more toll roads, like the M6 toll road, to reduce congestion around large cities and towns, but that’s another issue.
Unfortunately too many people have got used to things being ‘free’ at the point of use and are resistant to the idea of tolls.
The Scottish Government removed the tolls from the Forth and Tay road bridges when there was no overriding public demand for it to do so. Reversing that decision in the future will be very difficult, politically speaking.
Nevertheless taxpayers in Scotland seem happy enough to pay for the construction of the Queensferry Crossing Bridge (aka the new Forth road bridge) which is a sign, perhaps, that people don’t mind subsidising big engineering projects if there is (arguably) a need for them.
Ultimately what I want is a government that spends less time micro-managing our lives and one that focuses on the bigger issues.
Enormous multi-billion pound projects like HS2 send out a vibrant, positive message, and that’s what Britain needs post Brexit.
A bridge linking Scotland with Northern Ireland is less appealing but it’s worth exploring, isn’t it? Think big!
What I love most about Boris Johnson is the energy and humour he brings to public life. He won’t get every decision right but he’s a gambler and listening to the positive spin he put on HS2 in Parliament yesterday was genuinely uplifting.
How many politicians can you say that about?
He even made cycle lanes sound fun. As Quentin Letts recorded in The Times today, they would create “mini-Hollands, blooming like so many tulips”, allowing cyclists yet unborn to pedal in “tree-dappled sunlight”.
That’s a masterclass in oratory right there.
Despite that the moaning minnies have been out in force. Frankly, I’m sick and tired of the “gloomsters and doomsters” Boris rightly chided before getting Brexit done and recalibrating Britain’s future.
Yesterday’s announcement on HS2 flushed out thousands more, many on the Conservative right who expressed disappointment with both the decision and the fact that we no longer live in Victorian times when Britain’s railways were built by businessmen (many of whom went bust) with private capital.
Aside from Boris’ infectious enthusiasm, what I really applaud is a prime minister who acts rather than dithers, year after year, kicking difficult decisions into the long grass.
For the first time in more than a generation we have a PM who, for the moment at least, is not beholden to opinion polls or the naysayers within or surrounding his party.
Whatever happens, let’s enjoy this invigorating moment in our island history. It won’t last!