HS2 is ‘unachievable’

OUR thoughts are this week with those sitting on government advisory bodies on HS2. Try as they might, there is just no getting through.

Each year, with unerring regularity, the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office publish scathing reports about the railway project shambles.

And with the passing of time the reports seem to get more and more appalled, using more and more outraged language.

This week the Infrastructure and Projects Authority – who knew this existed? – waded in with its assessment of the entire project as “unachievable”.

Using a simple traffic light system, for those not inclined to read the details of the report, the project was simply rated ‘Red’.

That’s red for stop, as opposed to green for go.

Unlike the PAC and the NAO, the IPA has its own chief executive and reports directly to the Treasury and the Cabinet Office, we can only imagine it has very senior and respected civil servants the country has to offer. How do they feel to be so routinely ignored by their political masters?

Next year’s advisory body reports might as well contain just a series of capped-up expletives.

The Department for Transport was unusually frank in its response to the internal criticism this time around. In a statement, it said that so much money had been spent already there can be no turning back. That sounds a lot like unhealthily pride getting in the way of common sense.

Like a window into the mindset of a desperate gambler at the roulette table, convinced they are down so much there can be no real point in stopping now.

The Charge of the Light Brigade, Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Russia and the Titanic captain’s decision not to change course are just a few famous examples from history of the folly of ignoring advice and crashing on regardless.

And on the weekend the Sunday Telegraph reported on the latest leaked report about what might happen at Euston, if the works ever start again as many suspect they won’t.

It said that one way of saving significant money could be to abandon all the “over site development” and cut back on the station back from 11 platforms to seven.

The chance to remap the huge area of “public realm” around Euston and Mornington Crescent is why Camden Council has been interested in HS2 for so many years. As the years wear on, that is looking more and more unlikely. So where is our MP for the area criticising all this in Parliament?

Well of course Keir Starmer is the leader of the Labour Party that has, like the Conservatives, been backing HS2 all the way despite all the advice from the NAO, PAC and IPA.