Sunak kills the Northern Powerhouse.

And another thing. Sunak and senior tories were all saying no final decision had been made. Sunak made the video cancelling it 3 days before

madeleine45

Well what did we expect. ? One good thing is even people with very short memories will see this appalling behaviour and it should make sure the tories are chucked out at the next election!! I ,unhappily ,have Sunak as my mp and he is constantly in the local paper photos. Every good thing done by local people - charity auction, or raising money for specific things, he is there getting his photo taken with all the people who have spent months and more doing the actual work and he just wants to take the credit by putting his photo with them and implying that he was something to do with it!! Well if the paper comes to my group to take a photo I shall specifically state that I do not want him in the picture. Only those who have given their time to improving local life. Not the one who is making things worse. Of course it probably wont happen in my life time but with the rising temperatures in a few years those of us living in Yorkshire will be living in a better cooler climate than the south east . Just watch them all want to move up here then!!!

This could have been said of our MP. and photo opportunities. Maybe a Tory disease.
Another thing I wondered about was why was Aviva given the franchise for the N W line and just recently had its license renewed. Then immediately cancelled trains. Originally I understand that the government minister who awarded the franchise was offered a seat on the board. How many ministers and MPs have fingers in the developers pies.
Why was there money available for cross rail but not cross Pennine ?

The money is going to be spread around the country instead, particularly the North and Midlands, to improve both rail and road infrastructure. We are getting 100 million here in Bristol for a mass transit system, which is badly needed. It will go so much further and help so many more people than the ludicrously increasingly expensive HS2.

Saetana that was yesterday. Today that appears to have been removed from the plan, and reallocated to the whole West of England combined authority for various projects. Tomorrow, who knows…

Why is Sunak talking as if he’s saved the country money? How much money has his party cost the country so far with this and other schemes and contracts (PPE etc)?

At last, on Question Time tonight, it is being pointed out that HS2 is about creating extra capacity and not just about cutting a few minutes off a journey. And someone has just asked how much money is going to have to be paid out by cancelling it.

Apparently the government is already beginning to sell off land, housing etc.

This will never be resurrected.

Btw. I hope this sell off is totally transparent because no one can trust this shower with doing the right thing, and I worry that their friends will gain property/land at minimal expense.

…they’re burning the bridges

There will be blatant asset stripping of the country between now and the general election and the problems left for a Labour government to deal with will probably mean they will only get one term in office.

Stopping it is right. Why bankrupt the country? The rail operators will only strike and stop the trains anyway!

👀

Marina Purkiss
@MarinaPurkiss
·
11h
Sunak didn’t just cancel HS2…

He authorised the sale of the land that would form part of the cancelled route

So no other leader could reverse his decision.

This major decision

One he took unilaterally

Without consulting parliament

…without anyone having voted for him.

Looks like, 48 hours after Sunak said it would happen, the line is not now going to Euston, unless private funding is secured.

He really is Mr Flim-Flam. 🙄

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67021225

Ww2 I thought Sunak didn’t want to commit £100 billion to HS2 when £35 billion is earmarked. With a national debt approaching something like 3 trillion and real poverty in the UK, and the pledge to reduce inflation, does this decision look like the sensible decision of a dictator/autocrat?
Don’t think that selling land is the final nail in the coffin as it can always be rebought? Much as it was initially?
Although from any perspective, Sunak is a bit clueless on how he presents himself and his actions to the public despite his wife acclaiming his zest, zeal and zip…..

How anyone can defend this shambolic lot is beyond me. I wasn’t a fan of huge expense to shave 10 mins of a train journey Manchester to London but - hs2 was more than that.
I’d like to see the cost of cancellation set against continuing, with the benefits of improved modernised infrastructure and employment properly factored in.

Farmland and housing devastated - compensation costs will be huge but can’t compensate farmers for the destruction of land and livelihood

It was said that people who lost land would be given the first chance to buy it back. Wonder if the price will have escalated hugely.
Now Euston will only be used for HS2 if there is private investment to pay for it and he calls Starmer Captain Flip Flop!

westendgirl

It was said that people who lost land would be given the first chance to buy it back. Wonder if the price will have escalated hugely.
Now Euston will only be used for HS2 if there is private investment to pay for it and he calls Starmer Captain Flip Flop!

Some lost their livelihoods too as it was farmland, been in the families for generations.

Iam64

And another thing. Sunak and senior tories were all saying no final decision had been made. Sunak made the video cancelling it 3 days before

Wot! They lied again?
Sadly, not unexpected. Sunak probably thought he could keep his announcement under wraps (silly man) for his big reveal at conference.

He’s in Seville now hoping to garner support to stop the dinghies in the Channel. The Europeans are trying to tackle their own problems re this. At least Brussels are giving the UK full access to border issues now. Better late than never. The whole situation cannot continue.

Apologies, Sunak is in Granada for their talks.

Urmstongran

Apologies, Sunak is in Granada for their talks.

Yup, he's in cahoots with the fascist Italian PM. She's probably the only EU PM who can stomach the anti immigrant rhetoric that his Home Secretary spouts.

Don’t think that selling land is the final nail in the coffin as it can always be rebought? Much as it was initially?

I've seen a suggestion that if Starmer were to say that if he gets into government he will slap compulsory purchase orders on this land it would make it deeply unattractive now to prospective purchasers...

Keir Starmer is in agreement with the plan to use savings made by scrapping part of the high speed project to fund other rail and transport improvements across the North…… apparently?? So good to have approval in this way….

I never ever thought the project would ever be anything other than an unnecessary white elephant. The saving in time on a journey isn't sufficient to merit it and the costs of running it wil vastly outweigh any income derived from selling tickets which will be hugely expensive.
WE have had 125MPH Inter City trains since 1976. Building a special DEDICATED track for a train to go just 25 MPH faster makes no sense at all .
The distance form London to Birmingham is 101 miles and from Birmingham to Manchester is 71 mile. So now work out how much quicker a Specialised train travelling at a MAX of 150 mph bearing in mind its need to accelerate and de accelerate is that an ordianary Inter City train travelling at 125 Miles per hour.

It is like building a high speed train link across Lichtenstein. Totally pointless.

Trurider1

I never ever thought the project would ever be anything other than an unnecessary white elephant. The saving in time on a journey isn't sufficient to merit it and the costs of running it wil vastly outweigh any income derived from selling tickets which will be hugely expensive.
WE have had 125MPH Inter City trains since 1976. Building a special DEDICATED track for a train to go just 25 MPH faster makes no sense at all .
The distance form London to Birmingham is 101 miles and from Birmingham to Manchester is 71 mile. So now work out how much quicker a Specialised train travelling at a MAX of 150 mph bearing in mind its need to accelerate and de accelerate is that an ordianary Inter City train travelling at 125 Miles per hour.

It is like building a high speed train link across Lichtenstein. Totally pointless.

The project was not about cutting journey times to London. It was about providing extra capacity on the railways to enable more freight and slow trains to run on the existing east and west coast lines.

As it is, the west coast line is running at over capacity, which is why it is such a mess. Without HS2 it will get worse. I don't think the east coast line is much better.
It certainly won't enable much more freight to go by rail, which would be better for the environment than running thousands of lorries up and down the country, because there isn't the capacity to run more fast or stopping, trains, plus freight, on the existing lines.

Then trains will be even more overcrowded and unreliable and everyone will moan about them; forgetting how they welcomed the decision to halt HS2...

The more I think about it the more I think it's a very stupid decision.

Why can’t freight trains run during the night, when there are few if any passenger trains?

ronib

Keir Starmer is in agreement with the plan to use savings made by scrapping part of the high speed project to fund other rail and transport improvements across the North…… apparently?? So good to have approval in this way….

Where did he say that, please ronib? It's always good to have the exact words.