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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

Good to see the project delivered. Northern Powerhouse rail next ...

We can dream, but somehow I suspect that the "painful choices" Hunt warns of will fall more on the North.

Tories are absolutely itching to cancel HS2 at the point just after all the money has been spent and disruption incurred, but before the benefits can be realized. It's like the cancellation of the UK's space programme at the exact moment they were about to do their first (and in the end only) launch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow

Not really the ‘tories’ just some of them. The northern Tory MPs certainly want it. It is funded by long dated bonds. Not immediate taxation as it’s a nationally significant capital project. So cancelling bits of it looks good on paper only but makes zero immediate impact.

As a Return on investment, every pound spent in the south east on infrastructure returns 5 times or more in the local economy compared to the rest of the Uk, which is how these projects are prioritised.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-phase-one-ful...

Sadly I share your pessimism

One would think that there would be diminishing returns to more infrastructure in London, that some investment in the Power House North would do wonders.

A high speed rail linking up Liverpool to Hull sounds like a good idea, there are the Penniness to drill though, but it would hardly be the Gotthard base tunnel would it.

Pennine base tunnel anyone?

[update: this turns out to be a study for a road tunnel]

https://transportforthenorth.com/wp-content/uploads/trans-pe...

HS2 does more than just improve transport around London, it improves transport in the regions it goes through be separating local and high speed rail

Midlands Connect cover some of the gains they’ll get in these docs https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/publications/hs2-released-cap...

Those gains are part of the reason HS2 should go all the way to Scotland and why the Northern Powerhouse route from Hull to Liverpool should be built too

Tory governments have negative interest in "levelling up" the North. There's a lot of rhetoric, but all the action has been destructive.

Liverpool to Hull would be transformative, as would an improved service to London.

But the Leeds leg of HS2 was (predictably) one of the first things to be cut, so I wouldn't expect either to happen any time soon.

Its pretty terrible, that line would have had a major capacity impact on all the other Eastern lines. It goes a long way destroying the major benefits of HS2.

> One would think that there would be diminishing returns to more infrastructure in London, that some investment in the Power House North would do wonders.

Why would one think that? Everything we see suggests returns are compounding rather than diminishing.

I thought it was about health care and welfare.

hence why it will hit the north harder.

Northern powerhouse is a lie. Any promises of serious infra investment in the north is a lie

Generally I agree with you, but with recent political developments I'm wondering if Sunak might be forced into reversing some of that thinking in an attempt to win more votes in the North for when ever the next general election happens...

Not that I'd be optimistic if I lived up north, but maybe a bit more hopeful that with previous Tory lies about wanting to level up any part of the country.

Considering the not so great outlook for the Tories at the next election (although there’s probably two years to go to the next election and a lot can happen etc etc), they might consider writing off the North to focus on a “blue wall” in the South to minimise losses, which might not bode well for Northern investment.

I wish I had your optimism from a change of guard. I do live up north.

The only thing he may be forced in to is lying about it.

The Mash called it years ago: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/northern-powerho...

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