When this one comes up I always point out it would be better to not bother with HS2 and spend the money on making it easier for people not to have to travel around.

▲

ben_w 2 days ago | parent [-]

Great, but it's also a goods corridor; the only way around both of those at the same time (absent massive depopulation) is to move the people, would mean building loads more houses.

▲

crinkly 2 days ago | parent [-]

The WCML is perfectly adequate for that. HS2 is a vanity project for business and general passenger travel, none of which is certain or impossible on the WCML already.

	▲	appointment 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		But the WCML is at capacity, so it is not in fact adequate. "There is no available capacity without significantly impacting performance and causing a reduction in timetable resilience due to the resulting requirement for successive services to run on minimum headway" https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/om/wcml-capacity-...