Is Hs2 Now A Complete Waste Of Money And Totally Pointless , Even More So Than Before?

[dave50]

Now that working from home is becoming ever more popular due to the virus and the realisation you don't have to travel hundreds of miles to attend meetings etc and it can all be done remotely, it seems like that its from another era. We should be spending some of the billions on improving the existing network instead.

[andy-hughes]

I have had many conversations about this with my brother-in-law who is a civil engineer and he always reminds me of two variables -

The first is that a massive cost over-run is guaranteed simply because a project of this magnitude will uncover unforeseen problems on a daily basis that could not have been allowed for and factored into the original costings, so the budget will bust as a matter of course.

The second is that a project of this magnitude and cost simply cannot be stopped once it has got underway, the lost revenues in terms of initial research and preparation mean that once it has started, the project will always be seen through to the end because to do otherwise would mean a lost in revenue that will dwarf even the predicted overspend as the project rolls out.

That said, I feel that the destruction of housing and countryside remains at an unacceptable and frankly immoraL level, only to increase as time goes on.

[JimF]

"The second is that a project of this magnitude and cost simply cannot be stopped once it has got underway"

That is utter nonsense! Of course it could. The industrial world is full of abandoned engineering project. There's even a TV show about them.

If the project were stopped now, after the clear-up the ongoing cost to the taxpayer would be zero.

[pixie374]

It should be stopped.... but I think too many MPs now have have a financial stake in it.

[andy-hughes]

Jim - yes other projects are abandoned, but nothing on this scale, or with this amount laid out already.

[iluvmargie]

I wish with all my heart it could be stopped.

[New Judge]

//The industrial world is full of abandoned engineering project. There's even a TV show about them.//

That series is generally about projects that have been completed, operated for a spell and then abandoned, Jim. It doesn't usually cover stuff which was started and abandoned before completion.