Calls for cancellation of HS2 white elephant would mean Scots taxpayers saving more than £8 billion for a train service that stopped in England anyway

In the Guardian today, the above and:

So it is official, as if that makes a difference. After a 15-month review by the new chief executive, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed that HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039. Alexander called the original design a “massively over-specced folly” and called the increase in time and costs “obscene”. Indeed it possibly ranks as the wildest white elephant in British history. In comparison, Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is a garden shed, and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa a mere sandcastle.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/21/hs2-white-elephant-british-history-sunk-cost-fallacy

What is the current plan?

Was Scotland ever in the plans? See this from BBC Scotland in in October 2023:

Scotland has long-known it was not part of the HS2 plans but Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he is to scrap the line from Birmingham to Manchester will still have an impact north of the border.

Really? See this from BBC Scotland in December 2009:

Birmingham: 45mins, down from 1h 22mins

Liverpool: 1hr 23mins, down from 2hrs 8mins

Manchester: 1hr 6mins, down from 2hrs 7mins

Edinburgh: 2hrs 9mins, down from 4hrs 23mins

Glasgow: 2hrs 16mins, down from 4hrs 10 mins

Source: Network Rail http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8432051.stm

Back to the savings, regardless, HS2 is a ‘reserved’ UK Treasury-funded project. So Scottish taxpayers will pay 8% of £103bn, £824m. If it’s cancelled, we should save that somehow.

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12 thoughts on “Calls for cancellation of HS2 white elephant would mean Scots taxpayers saving more than £8 billion for a train service that stopped in England anyway”

  1. The time saved for London – Birmingham, while welcome, is not all that great in actual minutes, whereas the time savings for Glasgow or Edinburgh ARE significant and makes these services more attractive than flying or driving between the cities.

    However, not only is the service not going much beyond Birmingham, but speeds are not going to be as fast as the hype.

    Since so much is now in place between Birmingham and London, it is probably better to complete that and redirect the other costs to improving basic services in the North of England, extending the Borders Railway to Carlisle, and establish north/south rail connections in Wales. The use of the share for the north of Ireland can be discussed with the Irish Republic who provide services for the whole island.

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    1. when this was f8rst proposed the time saved was quoted as 20min. But the proposal at the time meant that HS2 would not have gone all the way in to the centre of Birmingham. This would have meant passengers getting off the train at a new station in the suburbs and taking a taxi into the centre to their meeting. Bang goes the time saved. They may have changed that now but who knows

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      1. one of the money spinners from this project appears to have been the income from renting out houses that had been compulsory purchase along the projected route. The pace has been so glacial that these properties did not have to be demolished immediately so we’re rented out. Nice we earner for the company involved.

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  5. HS2 is a testament to the massive transfer of money from the poor to the Professional classes – lawyers, land-owners, consultancies, NGOs, layer upon layer of takers, who, given the massive cost rises, late delivery and dubious benefits, are clearly ‘unprofessional’. £102 or 103 billion, up from £35 billion, all to shave minutes off the journey into London.

    History does not repeat itself but it often rhymes, said Mark Twain, and this rhymes with the banker crisis. Banker even rhymes with another word that has come to define those working in that lower ring of Dante’s inferno. That financial catastrophe cast a long depressing shadow over everything, again caused by the Professional classes, who actually gained, while everyone else took the hit. You see it in the Post Office scandal, Mandelson farrago, the hideous archetype that is Prince Andrew, the absurdity of the culture wars, where it has taken years to decide that men and women should have separate toilets.

    This is emblematic of what’s gone wrong in the country. The graduate, managerial class, who now dominate politics, education, the media, journalism, the arts and most institutions, have taken everything and impoverished the rest. Although by no means unique to London, that is its centre of gravity.

    Let’s spend a billion plus on flying our graduate kids around Europe in Erasmus, said Starmer. Does he have any idea how weird that sound to those whose kids do not go to University? Erasmus was for some a scam, as we got very little back for an enormous investment. It was mostly spent on academics, not students, and private school kids, not ordinary people (who would have gained most from the experience).

    We had the Turing scheme which had wider geographical reach and was far more socially equitable. ‘Inclusion’ for the middle classes largely means including them and keeping others out. Reeves then says she’ll give you a free bus ride to a local theme park, if you are poor. They are literally out of their tiny minds.

    As Labour swing towards rejoining the EU, they are simply seen as liars. Burnham, with no policy statements, says one day he wants to rejoin, the next he denies it. So pissed off are the voters nationally that he may lose in his own city. To be fair, he sounds vaguely human, the only criteria for selection of a leader of the Labour Party.

    Starmer, Reeves, Streeting and Philipson literally sound like bad robots. The Greens candidate has had to withdraw for being a nutter conspiracy theorist.

    Rejoining was NOT in their manifesto but everyone knows what they’re up to. At least Streeting was honest in saying he was a liar! But what choice does any Leave voter have now? Only one – Reform.

    A Referendum would plunge the country into a massively divisive period, impoverishing us further, all to join a trade bloc that is on its knees, heading further to the right than the UK. The costs would be phenomenal, in terms of donor contributions, with no rebate, especially if Ukraine joins. Freedom of movement would cause massive political problems as we experience a massive net movement into the UK, putting unbearable pressure on jobs, rents, housing and services (as happened last time). Sure the boats would stop, as you’d be able to simply walk in. Then there’s the stifling regulation, and stagnant growth, admitted by Draghi and Merz.

    We have literally pushed working class people in England (and Wales?) into voting for Reform, who stormed through the local and Welsh elections this month, then branded them Far Right. So deluded are the middle-class, graduate-professional class, that they think abusing people they rarely know is the solution to our problems in a democracy.

    This summer will be interesting.

    The World Cup will be a distraction in June but could also act as a catalyst. You can feel the anger in people. They’ve had enough of being used, abused and ignored. Social unrest is in the air?

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  6. Labour means tested student loans. Middle class pupils could not get them. Could not go to Uni.

    Exchange trips helped students to broaden their outlook.

    Scotland pays too much for the military. Pays repayment on loans not borrowed or spent in Scotland. Brexit lost £Billions.

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