'HS2-light': the new plan for the troubled train line

Ministers are considering an "HS2-light" railway line between Birmingham and Manchester as a new chapter opens in the long-running saga.

In a "rethink" of Rishi Sunak's decision to "entirely scrap" the high-speed line beyond Birmingham, the government is examining a plan which it hopes can be "delivered much more cheaply than the original scheme", said The Times.

What went wrong?

A government-commissioned study in 2006 concluded Britain needed greater rail capacity, but the delivery of the project was fraught with "incompetence and financial mismanagement" from the start, said Madeline Grant in The Telegraph. It left Britain looking "uniquely incapable of delivering major infrastructure projects".

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In the original plan, trains were "going to be hurtling between 18 cities at speeds of more than 200mph", said ITV News, bringing two thirds of everyone living in northern England within two hours of central London.  

But this time last year, Sunak scrapped everything apart from the line between London and Birmingham, which was already under construction – meaning "billions of pounds" of taxpayers' money was "blown" on the project, said the BBC's "Panorama".

What is the new plan?

The new scheme would see an additional section between Birmingham and Crewe in Cheshire. Although it would be slower than HS2, it would still allow trains to travel faster than the present West Coast mainline. It would be a money-saving "HS2 light", said Business Matters.

Supporters said the new line would be up to 40% cheaper to build than the previous planned HS2 link between Birmingham and Manchester, and a government source told The Times that "realistically it is the only thing to do".

In a related development, the government has "dropped its biggest hint yet" that it will fund the HS2 line to Euston as originally planned, abandoning the previous government's money-saving plan that would see the line stop at Old Oak Common in west London, said Construction Enquirer.

What's the reaction?

The "conundrum" over HS2 "may have been solved", wrote Ben Clatworthy, transport correspondent for The Times. The government is "embracing the true reason a new line needed to be built between London and the north", which was not "speed" but "capacity".

The union for directly employed HS2 staff, TSSA, welcomed the news that the line might run to Euston, saying it is "undoubtedly the right move" and would be a "crucial win for North-South connectivity". 

The new plans could also help current disruption and overcrowding problems at Euston station, said Simon Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent. The "elephantine project intruding on the room" is the stalled HS2 on the western flank of the station. It's time to "awaken" that "zombie building site", and "get on with it".

A senior government source told Business Matters that "there is a realisation in government that what they've got at the moment is a complete dog's breakfast" and that "something needs to be done".