HS2 comes under renewed attack from both motoring and rail advocates

Media commentary on the Government’s proposed HS2 high-speed rail network continues to be heavily negative, but with observers from different perspectives attacking the project for very different reasons. Rik Thomas reports

Rik Thomas

23 November 2018

Motoring journalist Mike Rutherford suggested that the money being spent on HS2 would better be spent on road building, whereas transport commentator Christian Wolmar was of the opinion that the costs of HS2 could better be diverted to other public transport infrastructure projects

“Why build HS2 for £403m per mile when a road costs £10m per mile?” motoring journalist Mike Rutherford asked rhetorically in Auto Express magazine on 18 November. “With HS2 – the proposed alternative to normal trains, cars, buses, coaches and planes – normality goes out the window.

“The crackpot project has barely begun, yet we’re already seeing financial anomalies, lack of logic and annihilation of the homes/communities in its path,”...