Is HS2 a Good Idea?

By Liam Warburton

“A revolution in the nation’s public transport provision”. This is according to Prime

Minister Boris Johnson as construction finally began, in mid-September, on phase
one of the HS2 project. However, a large population of the country do not share
the same enthusiasm as the current number 10 occupier. The new trainline has
been controversial since the proposal was first mentioned and according to a
recent ‘YouGov’ poll, 44% of people oppose HS2 with a mere 26% who are for it
(May 2020). On paper, you would think that more public transport is a positive
thing, but to fully understand this debate, we need to digest what HS2 is and both
its pro’s and con’s.

HS2 will supposedly be the fastest high-speed rail line in Europe, with ‘Phase One’
running from London to Birmingham, ‘Phase Two A’ running from Birmingham to
Manchester and ‘Phase Two B’ being Birmingham to Leeds. This is an attempt to
connect the north with the south, reduce the amount of car and airline traffic and
also to hopefully decrease journey time whilst increasing train capacity.

In the north of England, both commuter and express trains run on the same low
speed line, the ‘West Coast Main Line’ which was built during the Victorian times.
This means the express services need a large gap between the commuters to
prevent any collisions. However, this causes a limited service. Now, you might be
thinking that a simple solution to this is to create another track on the ‘West Coast
Line’ solely for express routes. Well, according to a ‘Network Rail’ report, this was
originally considered but ultimately it will cause massive weekend disruptions for
up to 15 years. Thus, the intentions are to basically run express trains on HS2 and
commuter trains on the low-speed line. This will mean more trains on both lines,
more job opportunities for not only engineers but also station staff and a decrease
in train ticket prices due to supply meeting demand. Sounds pretty ideal so far,
right?
Unfortunately, like with majority of government projects, there are a lot of
negatives too. The main one being the cost of construction, in 2010, it was
estimated that HS2 would cost roughly £32 billion. Ten years later and it was
leaked by ‘The Sun’ that the estimated cost is closer to £106 billion, this is due to
poorly written contracts and unexpected issues like high levels of asbestos. The
full completion date has also changed from 2033 to sometime around 2040.
These facts have installed uncertainty into the British public with some fearing
that construction will be scrapped after ‘Phase One’ due to budget issues. This of
course would benefit London commuters substantially more than the northern
neighbours and will also affect potential infrastructures like the ‘Northern
Powerhouse’ plan that currently relies heavily on HS2 to become possible.

HS2’s problems doesn’t stop there though. In terms of environmental impact, HS2
tracks will require the same amount of space as a four-lane motorway. This
would need to cut through over forty ancient woodlands and up to three
important habitats and wetlands, causing massive disruption to the wildlife. This
somewhat contradicts the idea that HS2 will impact the environment in a positive
way.

Overall, I personally believe that HS2 is a bad idea not only from a financial and
eco-friendly perspective, but also due to a low level of ambition and creativity.
The UK economy is the lowest it has been for eleven years; unemployment hasn’t
been this low since the seventies and yet the government still believes that over
£100 billion should be spent on transport. I can’t help but see HS2 as a way of
aiding the few rather than the many and to help high end business men/women
travel between major cities quicker and easier. But at what cost?

Now, in terms of ambition there seems to be a lack of creativity. I believe that HS2
is essentially a glorified bullet train. The ‘Shinkansen’ bullet train is an array of
high-speed railway lines in Japan that connect distant Japanese regions with
Tokyo. This was a bid to help growth and development across the country. The
issue is not with bullet trains as they did improve Japan’s economy, the issue is
spending such a large amount of money on an idea that was first created over 50
years ago. It shows a lack of imagination and entrepreneurialism. HS2 is
supposedly ‘a revolution’ in the future of travel in the UK, which is alarming
considering eastern countries are already decades ahead of us. Especially after
the year we’ve all had, we all want the future to be exciting and innovative.
However, using a refurbished plan with what is looking like an endless budget
does not spark excitement. There has to be a better way of improving transport.