HS2 in ‘very serious situation’, boss says
HS2 is in a “very serious situation” and needs a “fundamental reset”, the new boss of the company building the high-speed railway has warned.
Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, said he is committed to ensuring the railway opens “safely and efficiently”.
“The prize is clear. However, the programme is in a very serious situation that requires a fundamental reset to enable it to be delivered to the lowest feasible cost.
A "fundamental reset" eh? Taking us into 2025, we appear to have yet another term for "enormous quantities of extra money".
8 comments:
According to Wikipedia a 'Bridge to Nowhere' can be the result of several contrary circumstances. But I wonder if the HS2 is a 'Railway to Nowhere' for one of those circumstances:
"The bridge or any other part of the construction can be regarded as a pork barrel project aimed at useless fund spending or money laundering with minor or negligible public usefulness."
Public servants and project managers have learnt that 22 billion is a talismanic figure, capable of inducing credulity in all who contemplate it.
Just stop the bloody thing and investigate the most profitable uses for the land already bought and the construction already done. Would pipelines to carry water from the W & NW of England, and Wales, to the SE of England be a profitable use?
Find out: auction everything off and find out who can see value there.
DJ - unfortunately it feels like a pork barrel project and when we add in subsidies to windmills, solar farms and anything 'green', pork barrel projects are beginning to feel like the normal UK way of doing things.
Sam - that may be Reeves' question - "how many 22 billions will it be?"
dearieme - I agree, stop it and sell the assets.
About 200 years ago, a group of business men and landowners managed to build, first the canal network and then all the railways. All done using their own and shareholders money. The only government involvement was passing enabling Acts of Parliament . What happened to the spirit of enterprise that fueled the Industrial Revolution?
John - good point, there is one of those canals not far from where we are, the Cromford canal. Now the easy option comes first - chase after government money. Much of what now passes for infrastructure investment is closer to racketeering than investment.
Methinks that a size 12, steel toecapped, navvie's boot, swung as by a rugby goalkicker, would provide sufficient reset to his fundament.
Purely metaphorically, of course!!
Doonhamer - I agree, in a purely metaphorical sense, of course!
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