A slow train to Manchester

With HS2 firmly on the scrap heap, Simon Calder inspects proposals from companies eager to fill the yawning gap

- Simon Calder

Call it a hunch if you like, but I have a sneaking suspicion there is just a chance that Mark Harper may no longer be transport secretary by the end of the week.

There seems to be a general election tomorrow. It is plausible that some of us who don’t own cars and instead rely on trains may not be duly grateful for everything the government has done to improve the railways. Other members of the electorate may have their own reasons for a change of administration.

Should that prove to be the case, this week’s announcement of a proposed HS2 replacement is the ideal epitaph for the government that committed the gravest act of infrastructure vandalism by scrapping the high-speed link beyond Birmingham to Manchester.

HS2 is desperately needed between the West Midlands and northwest England because of the dire lack of capacity on the existing Victorian railway. That is why there was 15 years of allparty agreement until Harper’s boss, Rishi Sunak, scrapped it last October in a vain attempt to shore up electoral support.