One of the greatest problems with England is its nostalgia for what has passed and its reluctance to acknowledge that the future is coming. It is possible to make an accountant’s case for HS2 and it is possible to make an equally good accountant’s case against it. There are environmental arguments which hold water both for and against.
HS2 is more than money. It is a vision. A vision of a modern forward looking Britain building high speed communications and a modern infrastructure to provide economic stimulus in the now and a more certain future in a competitive world for generations to come. Yes, you can mess about lengthening platforms and adding carriages to trains, but this is no more of a solution than putting bigger propellers on piston engined planes in the belief that will enable them to compete with jets. A dedicated high speed line without all the junctions and switches is as different a journey experience as chalk from cheese as everyone who goes by rail to France or rides the high speed commuter line in Kent can testify.
It is timely to remind the House of Lords committee which fails to see the case, that it is precisely this approach which has led to a decline in our industrial capacity and the fashioning of an economy founded on house price inflation, shopping and service jobs, delivering the lowest productivity per capita of any of the advanced nations. We have been completely left out of making lap tops, tablets, smart phones, TVs and almost all consumer electronics; a truly sorry outcome for the cradle of the industrial revolution. And as we all know the thing that gave that legs was the railway. In the modern age the railways have become the most environmentally friendly people carrier and without the very best the British people will be riding backwards. A bit like the House of Lords.