AIBU to think HS 2 is a monumental waste of money?

[cloudtreecarpet]

So I heard people discussing HS2 on the radio today.
Apparently when it's finished it will have cost around £100 billion and it won't be completed until 2029!

Am I being unreasonable to be absolutely shocked and horrified by this and see it as a huge waste of money?
Labour began the idea in 2009 & successive Governments have continued it.

But will it actually be of value in the end and is it worth the money?

These are genuine questions and I am prepared to be enlightened by those who maybe know more about it because tbh at the moment it looks to me like a massive, expensive con.

They've scrapped the section that could have been a big improvement, across the Pennines from Manchester to Leeds. It's a hell of a lot of money to spend on cutting something like 25 minutes off journeys between London and Birmingham.

I'm on a couple of UK railway web forums and lots of industry insiders and "in the know" enthusiasts are struggling with the "links" North of Birmingham, i.e. where it rejoins the West coast main line as Crewe is already a major bottleneck and part of HS2 was re-design of Crewe which now seems to be watered down massively, and there's talk of a different "link" to the WCML from Birmingham which will just cause another bottleneck. Talk is really that it's likely to be little more than a new "shuttle" between Birmingham and London as all the proposed links from Birmingham North are severely problematic in one way or another.

General opinion is that a new "Normal" speed line to relieve the Southern end of the WCML congestion with proper links back to the WCML north of Crewe would have cost a fraction of HS2 and been a more flexible solution.

£100 billion for 100 miles is £1 BILLION per mile of track. It's utterly insane. Heads should roll and people should be in prison who benefitted from it yet contributed to the fiasco due to their incompetence or fraud.

Yes, indeed, the Northern end is where the main benefits would have occurred for more people. Back 20 years ago when it started to be first talked about/planned, people here up in the North doubted it would ever reach Manchester and wanted it to start at the Northern end as they feared it would be curtailed before it got North. All it's done is delayed improvements to the North (i.e. Liverpool<>Manchester<>Leeds<>Newcastle) corridor by 30+ years. Improvements were needed 20 years ago and it's going to be another 10-20 years before the Trans Pennine route sees any meaningful improvements (if ever) as all we're getting is a bit of piecemeal electrification every few years, the odd junction improvement, etc.

It’s an utter blot on the landscape, they’ve decimated so many important sites and beautiful landscapes for absolutely fuck all

Even worse, at the cost of bloody billions.

the rail network is an embarrassment compared to other countries. It’s needed and we need more upgrades

YANBU it's fucking atrocious.

They've carved up huge swathes of countryside around where i live, cut down ancient trees, built fucking great car parks for all the lorry's and 'segments' and cranes all lit up 24/7 like xmas trees giving light pollution, decimated all the roads through the villages, closed lanes permanently causing traffic problems and fucked up the housing market.

All to get between London and Birmingham a few minutes faster 😩 And we can't even get on the fucking thing cos it doesn't stop !! We have to go to London or Birmingham to get on it .... 🧐

Think of what else we could have done with that money.

We can’t take to the streets because it will take twenty minutes too long to get to the streets. We can take to the streets in 2039.

This is what breaks my heart ,absolute destruction and no one will ever be held responsible and brought to account .
Alongside homes demolished pointlessly ,the whole thing is utterly shameful.
We must be a laughing stock over this.

I used to live in 10 min walking distance from a station that could take me into Manchester in 30 minutes. Except there was only 1 train an hour a lot of the time, or it was rail replacement bus for months on end, or there were not enough carriages. It became a service I just couldn’t rely on regularly and therefore used it rarely even though it was practically on my doorstep.

Another station near me currently only has a tiny car park, so if that is full you can’t get the train. So you end up driving the whole journey.

imagine what all those billions could have been spent on improving the existing network in situations like the above. People need reliable, frequent and easily accessible train travel throughout the whole of the UK. HS2 makes me so cross.

It hasn't even created proper jobs, they are self employed. They finish them for the odd week here and there, so they can't be classed as employed. Absolute disgrace.

There are around 1.4 MILLION families on the waiting list for social housing and that number is only going to increase.

Imagine what 100 billion could have done for them?

I can't tell you how horrendous the impact has been on our local area. What was once lovely countryside has been completely decimated by this absolute travesty and we'll still be living with the constant disruption for years to come with no actual benefits to anyone at the end of it, least of all those of us caught up in it day to day.

Of course I'm furious about this personal impact but the general destruction for no actual gains or positive outcomes for anyone regardless would be laughable if it weren't so utterly insane.

They did find some interesting Saxon skeletons at Wendover, so not all bad.