HS2 news - live: Sunak insists he’s committed to levelling up as rail backlash grows

Downscaling HS2 would create “a commercial and operational mess”, industry experts have warned.

William Barter, a railway consultant whose recent clients include the Department for Transport, told the PA news agency this would result in “80 per cent of the costs and 20 per cent of the benefits”, while rail engineer and writer Gareth Dennis claimed it would be a “stupid decision”.

Under existing plans, HS2 trains will run on high-speed lines between London and Manchester, as well as running on existing lines to destinations such as Glasgow, Liverpool and North Wales.

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Sadiq Khan has said he is “astonished” that HS2 could become a “shuttle service” between Birmingham and west London.

“I’m astonished and alarmed and it’s worth reminding people what this will mean. This will mean that in future journeys from Birmingham, to the centre of London on High Speed 2 will take longer than it currently takes,” the Labour mayor of London told the Press Association.

“I’m astonished that the government’s allowed costs to escalate the way they have. They’ve been in power since 2010, but I’m also astonished they are seriously considering having a High Speed 2 line that is a shuttle service between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common, which is six miles to the west of central London.”

He added: “Also in Euston – they have destroyed businesses, they’ve demolished homes. They’ve let down a community. Euston is a cluster of Life Sciences, of tech, of education, of a culture and they will miss out on this investment as will communities north of Birmingham and Manchester.”

Rail passengers are returning despite the changes brought about by Covid, according to the Railway Industry Association.

Simon Calder reports: The body – which represents companies that stand to benefit from the construction of HS2 – says passenger numbers were 17 per cent down on pre-pandemic numbers in the last three months of 2022, but in spring and summer this year the figures are just 4 per cent down.

Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association, said: “One of the reasons cited by critical politicians for scrapping HS2 Phase 2 is that passenger numbers are significantly down and people will not travel by train in future.

“This is plain wrong, and all of us associated with the railway industry should be out there publicly refuting this assertion. In fact, today’s passenger levels are already significantly higher than when the business case for HS2 was approved, and have been growing back strongly since the pandemic.

“In the last six months, passenger numbers have been averaging 96 per cent of pre-Covid levels, despite strikes and poor service levels on some parts of the network.

“In short, passengers have been returning in droves around the country and there is no evidence this trend upwards will not continue in future. With a growing population, and a generally agreed need to level-up and decarbonise, now is clearly not the time for the government to be scrapping major project like HS2 Phase 2 – the main benefit of the scheme being it frees up much-needed capacity on the West Coast, Midlands and East Coast Mainlines for the increasing numbers of passengers we are going to see in the years ahead.”

Paul Johnson has said the chaos around HS2 makes him “want to weep” and the end result will be a “total waste" of money, Archie Mitchell reports.

The influential economist said he did not support the high speed rail project initially, claiming it was “going to be hugely expensive with relatively little gain”.

Mr Johnson told Times Radio: “It makes me want to weep, it just makes me despair.

“The original sin, as it were, was agreeing to do it in the first place. It was obviously going to be hugely expensive, with relatively little gain from it relative to pretty much anything else you could have done with the railway or transport system, whether that’s making rail connections across the north vastly better or actually building a bunch of bypasses and improving the roundabouts in the road network.

“And we knew that, that this was not the best way you could spend that amount of money. We also know how difficult we find it to build these projects."

Mr Johnson added: "It rather looks like we’re going to totally waste the money on this in producing a rail at the cost of tens of billions, which will get you from Birmingham to central London less quickly than you can do at the moment."

It would be “irresponsible” to keep ploughing money into the HS2 project in the face of rising costs, a cabinet minister said as Rishi Sunak considered scrapping the route from Birmingham to Manchester.

Former transport secretary Grant Shapps said the scheme risked sucking up money which could be used on other local projects as ministers considered the future of the project.

Mr Shapps said the government could not write an “open-ended cheque” if costs were “inexorably going higher and higher”.

David Hughes reports:

On Wednesday 13 September, TheIndependent revealed top-level talks were taking place between Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt about whether to scrap parts of the high-speed rail project HS2.

The much-delayed and overbudget scheme is for a rail line linking some of the country’s largest cities, intended to connect London, the Midlands and the north of England, with construction split into three phases.

Downing Street was evasive when approached for comment – but refused to deny discussions were taking place. Our story even appeared to be news to HS2’s project managers, as well as the Department for Transport.

Read the full report:

Andy Burnham has urged Rishi Sunak to avoid scrapping HS2, warning that the decision would leave the north of England with “Victorian infrastructure”.

Speaking on Monday morning (25 September), the mayor of Greater Manchester questioned why those living in the region are treated as “second-class citizens”.

“We need new north-south rail lines and we need new east-west rail lines, London has never been forced to choose between those two things,” Mr Burnham said.

“London gets everything. Why should we always be forced to choose? Why should the public here always be treated as second-class citizens?”

Watch the clip here:

HS2 has suffered a number of delays since the government decided to press ahead with the project more than a decade ago.

The high-speed rail network, designed to better connect London and the southeast to the north, has also faced a number of legal challenges.

It has been a controversial project since plans to build it first emerged in 2009 under the then Labour government.

Below is a timeline of the key events:

Downing Street is still declining to comment on the future of HS2 after The Independent revealed that Rishi Sunak and the chancellor are considering scrapping the northern leg between Birmingham and Manchester.

The prime minister spoke to reporters earlier while on a visit to Hertfordshire and declined to give his backing to the project while insisting he was committed to levelling up.

His official spokesman has also repeatedly declined to comment on what the PM earlier described as “speculation” about the future of the project.

The spokesman said that the government would continue to have a “good record” on levelling up, amid anger in northern England over the renewed uncertainty over the fate of the rail project.

“Without getting into a specific project, I think the government has and will continue to have a good record about levelling up and driving growth in the north,” the spokesman said.

Gordon Brown has said giving up on HS2 would cause “confusion and chaos” - especially for Manchester and the rest of the north of England, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former prime minister said it is “very sad” politicians cannot agree to build “basic infrastructure” such as the northern link of the high speed rail network.

And he said Britain is in danger of being stuck with “19th century solutions to 21st century problems”.

Mr Brown told LBC: “Every country in Europe is doing high speed rail. It’s becoming the norm rather than the exception, and Britain is in danger of having 19th century solutions to 21st century problems.

“If you embark on a big infrastructure project, you cause confusion and chaos, particularly for Manchester and for the areas in the north, where they also want east/west links as well as north/south links, if you just give up on a project halfway through it.

“ It does not make sense for us to give up all the work that has been done. But again, there should be an all-party consensus on this. This is long term infrastructure, irrespective of which party is in power, which party actually exists.

“We’re talking about a future 50 years ahead. And we’ve got to really plan that on the basis that we can get some agreement between the parties.”