Funding for HS2 - what about the rest of the UK?

My article in this week's Cornish Guardian comments on the billions being spent on HS2 and the implications for the rest of the UK. It is as follows:

Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government has given the go-ahead to HS2, the proposed high speed railway between London and the Midlands / north of England. About ten years ago, the project was projected to cost £32.2 billion, but by 2015 this had risen to £56 billion. It is presently estimated that it will cost £106 billion.

The first phase between London and Birmingham could be open by 2028-2031, while the second phase to Manchester and Leeds would not be operational until 2035-2040.

I am usually a strong supporter of an improved public transport network, but I really do struggle with the whole concept of HS2. It may well increase capacity on the network and reduce journey times, but I feel central government should instead prioritise the rebuilding and strengthening of the wider rail network decimated by Beeching’s cuts in the 1960s.

The Department for Transport (DOT) says travellers can now get from Birmingham to London in about one hour and 21 minutes. I have travelled on this route on a number of occasions, and I have always thought it was a pretty good service. The DOT want to reduce travel times to about 52 minutes.

Looking at it all from a Cornish perspective, the present trip between Birmingham and London takes the same time as a journey from Penzance to Liskeard. In terms of HS2 times, someone would be able to get from the Midlands to London just as quick as someone could get from Penzance to St Austell.

In terms of distance and time, it all seems a bit unbalanced. And it is frankly nonsensical that Ministers have yet to secure the sustainability of western lines by sorting out the situation at Dawlish.

It is interesting to note that opponents of HS2 are making the claim that the investment is not about attempting to “level up” across the country, but will “simply make London an even more dominant economic centre.” There are complaints that too many of the proposed new jobs will be in London and we must not forget that the UK is still in the process of spending £40 billion on its Crossrail project between Heathrow Airport and the Canary Wharf financial district.

It remains my fear that with the UK Government spending so much money on projects such as HS2 and Crossrail, it could mean that less money is spent in places such as Cornwall. That is why I believe there needs to be an ongoing year-on-year audit of capital expenditure across all the parts of the UK, in order to insure parity of investment.