HS2 will give the country a new backbone

So there you have it. Boris Johnson takes back control and becomes the nation’s Fat Controller and chief bus driver in one big swoop.

After months of tortuous deliberations, the Prime Minister today gave the green light for High Speed 2 rail project linking London to Birmingham, and then in two forks north, to Leeds and Manchester.

Speaking at his usual full throttle, Johnson told the Commons that the Cabinet’s controversial decision to go ahead with the £88bn rail project is the only way of solving the UK’s great “musculoskeletal problem” with transport. As he put it, the “fundamental benefits” of the project far outweigh the “exploding costs.”

While HS2 will provide the west of the country with a new backbone, the Cabinet has also approved funding for more integrated rail links running from west to east across the north, the missing bones in the UK’s transport structure. Experts also claim it’s the best way to build the promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, what used to be called HS3, which is due to cross the Pennines, linking the eastern cities with the west. The ribs of the skeleton if you like.

Along with plans to open up some of the railway stations closed by Beeching in the 1960s, and with the thumbs-up to £5bn of spending on improved bus services, 4,000 new buses and cycling lanes you can start to see a more interconnected transport system being developed.

The Prime Minister explained the decision to go ahead came after being convinced that it is only by building HS2 that a vast increase in capacity can be achieved while shortening commuting times and injecting much needed investment to the West Midlands, the North and Scotland.

He added that Britain could “try to get by with the existing routes from North to South” but it was better to “have the guts to take a decision”. “None of this makes any sense without HS2,” he told MPs. “If we start now services could be running by the end of the decade. Yes it is ambitious. But ambition is what we have lacked for far too long.”

Quite. It’s a view which was reinforced by Network Rail’s experts who warned the Department of Transport recently that if HS2 were scrapped, passengers will face up to three decades of chaos on the railways because abandoning the project would force rail chiefs to start upgrading other lines to cope with overcrowding as the West Coast Main Line, the East Coast Main Line and the Midlands Main Line are bursting.

Network Rail also warned that plans to upgrade the North’s rail network – one of Johnson’s most important election promises – would be £15bn more expensive without HS2.

Business leaders from the CBI to Make UK, the trade association for manufacturing industry, welcomed the news which already has – and will – create thousands of jobs in the regions.

One of the projects highest profile campaigners, Andy Street, the West Midlands Mayor, has been an ardent supporter of the rail link, claiming that the prospect of HS2 has already benefited the region just on the prospect alone.

Street said: “This is a great day for the West Midlands and Britain. The Prime Minister’s decision is the right one and brings certainty to our efforts to bring growth to the region and to the north. As I have always said, HS2 was never an either or project but one which will be built alongside other important transport links in the region.”

He added: “We are looking forward to work starting in March, everyone is ready to go. The construction companies are on standby and there are going to be thousands of new jobs created.”

The Tory mayor, who has denied reports that he threatened to resign if HS2 did not go ahead, claims that several big corporates have located their HQ in the city because they anticipated the boost to the local economy that better transport links will bring.

Despite the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm, he was also mindful of the huge costs and the alleged poor management so far of the project. “I cannot say that HS2 limited has distinguished itself in the handling of local communities. The cost forecasts have exploded, but poor management to date has not detracted from the fundamental value of the project.”

Aimed at restoring discipline to the programme and to meet concern over HS2’s management – and some of the extravagant salaries that are being paid – Johnson confirmed that a new HS2 minister is to be appointed and that there will be ministerial oversight.

HS2 Ltd is to have control taken away from it of the redevelopment of Euston station while the second part of the line – from Crewe to Manchester and from Birmingham to Leeds – is to be looked at again to find cost savings.

Work on the line is now expected to begin within weeks of today’s decision, with the first phase between London and Birmingham due to start by the end of March.

There is already talk that one of the London sub-stations should be named after Baroness Thatcher. But what of HS2 itself? Time for some closure, and a new name. Northern Lights has a nice ring.