Let this sink in: £112,000,000,000. £112,000,000,000. £112,000,000,000. An astonishing figure. So large, worth saying more than twice.
More than our annual defence budget (£ 60.2billion) and the money we spend on transport (£41.3bilion) put together.
And it’s still just an estimate. Welcome to the mad, mad world of HS2. And it’s our bloody money. And nobody gives a damn.
Back in the days of Gordon Brown, who got a special place in the pantheon of dim Chancellors by flogging our gold off at more than a tenth of today’s price, he forecast that building the high-speed train line from London to Manchester would be £37.5billion.
A big number even then. But we were assured it would be worth it because we would have some of the fastest trains in the world. Great.
Why you’d want to get to Birmingham quickly is beyond me. Have you been there lately? I could imagine wanting to leave quickly. Perhaps that was the real political thinking behind the HS2.
If Brown had taken the £100billion, abandoned HS2 and simply slashed income tax with the money, it would mean everybody, for one year only, would pay at least a third less in tax. How fantastic.
Instead, we continue to be lumbered with the project until its alleged finishing date, 2040 or possibly 2043. Nobody knows, and I can still see the possibility that the UK runs out of money and it never makes it to Euston station.
By then, the good news is that Gordon Brown will no longer be with us, which may also be true of Heidi Alexander, the overly large Secretary of State for Pies and Transport, who announced these dreadful figures.
With luck, that’s two passengers who won’t be around to claim free rail tickets.
What is remarkable is that not only is this costing a fortune, but it’s not going to Leeds and Manchester, and as even the Tories recognised, we didn’t have the money. That original estimate from that idiot Brown had HS2 going to both cities.
Are you sitting down? You have been robbed of £112billion in just 32 minutes | Getty Images
How much would that have cost? At the present rate, the number could have doubled to £200billion. Who is looking after our money? Do politicians give a stuff that we are working hard ( or some of us are) and we want MPs and ministers to care about our money just as we do.
So far, HS2’s 30,000 workers have completed all the tunnelling between Old Oak Common and Birmingham’s Curzon Street, but only two out of the 52 viaducts and just 10 per cent of the 169 planned bridges.
What’s the chance of all this going to plan? I assure you it’s nil. And based on their previous efforts, it might be a minus number.
In order to save money, an expression that has never been used by politicians or civil servants before, the planned speed is to be reduced by 25mph to just under 200mph. Hoobloodyray.
The downside is that this means the journey time will be slower, meaning HS2 will save only 32 minutes compared with the fastest London-to-Birmingham train.
What was the point of starting this at all? All for 32 minutes. I’d much rather have the £112billion back in my pocket in reduced taxes.
I think you would too.
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