The uncertain fate of HS2 – the case for and against

The prime minister is due to decide whether to go ahead with the controversial high-speed rail link from London to the north. What is he likely to decide, and why? Simon Wilson reports

Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, is an HS2 booster
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What has happened with HS2?

In the coming days, the prime minister must decide whether the UK will go ahead with High Speed Two, on which construction is (at last) supposed to start this spring. HS2, a project conceived under Labour and carried forward under the Cameron and May governments, was given the go-ahead by the transport department back in 2012. The first phase links London to Birmingham; the second phase continues the line on in a Y-shape to Manchester and Leeds. Trains will carry 1,100 passengers a time, up to 14 times an hour, at speeds of up to 250mph. But right from the off, the economic rationale for HS2 has looked thin. And given two recent official reviews of the project, it looks thinner than ever.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.