It’s all about capacity rather than speed though, isn’t it? A big part of the reason half of the trains on the west coast main line are delayed or cancelled whilst also costing a hundred quid for an off peak ticket is that the line is now at capacity.

HS2 was supposed to be completed all the way to Manchester long before this came to fruition, so that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now. It’s going to push up the price of rail freight (and therefore prices for goods) and very likely push more and more of it onto the roads the longer we delay.

Don’t get me wrong it would be honestly fantastic if they could connect HS1 & HS2 up and build passport control platforms along the route up to Manchester—I’d love to dodge the airport for shorter journeys. However, ultimately that’s just a nice-to-have in light of the real problem HS2 was supposed to have already solved. Tbh if I was trading that off versus completing the original extended proposal up to Glasgow, that is probably of greater benefit too.

Though, frankly we should really be doing the whole lot plus the east to west rail routes