Full speed ahead for HS2 as PM casts aside the doubters

After months of dither, Boris Johnson has given the go-ahead to construction to HS2. Construction of phase 1, between London and the West Midlands, could start as soon as April. But phase 2b, from Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to Leeds, will be subject to a wider review of the North’s raill needs.

The uncertainty is over. At lunchtime on Tuesday 11 February, Boris Johnson stepped up to the Commons despatch box to announce that HS2 will be built. “We can try to get by with the existing routes from north to south. We can consign the next generation to overcrowding and standing up in the carriageways, or we can have the guts to take a decision, no matter how difficult and controversial, that will deliver prosperity to every part of the country,” he said.

Johnson ordered a review...

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