Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt in talks to scrap phase two of HS2 as costs spiral

Honestly, looking at the numbers, if the aim was to increase commuting range to London, even Birmingham was beyond what I'd be willing to tolerate, even with HS2.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/19/hs2-travel-times-route-speed-and-time-you-could-save-on-your-commute-15631586/

London to Birmingham: It’s expected this journey will take 52 minutes instead of 81 minutes (one hour, 21 minutes).

London to Manchester: It’ll take just over an hour (63 minutes to be exact) to get from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly if all goes to plan with HS2. Right now, it takes 144 minutes (two hours, 24 minutes).

So it's about an hour to either, and that's just one-way and only the train portion of the commute; there's going to be more travel at each end.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistics-great-britain-2021/transport-statistics-great-britain-2021

the average time taken to travel to work was 28 minutes across all modes, 3 minutes faster than 2019’s average

So just the train portion of the commute would be something like double the average British total commute length.

That's a considerable chunk of one's day spent commuting.

3 comments

God forbid they spend money on infrastructure that exists outside of London and the southeast.
- Well yes, because London is the centre of the universe.
- Honestly, looking at the numbers, if the aim was to increase commuting range to London, even Birmingham was beyond what I'd be willing to tolerate, even with HS2.
  https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/19/hs2-travel-times-route-speed-and-time-you-could-save-on-your-commute-15631586/
  London to Birmingham: It’s expected this journey will take 52 minutes instead of 81 minutes (one hour, 21 minutes).
  London to Manchester: It’ll take just over an hour (63 minutes to be exact) to get from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly if all goes to plan with HS2. Right now, it takes 144 minutes (two hours, 24 minutes).
  So it's about an hour to either, and that's just one-way and only the train portion of the commute; there's going to be more travel at each end.
  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistics-great-britain-2021/transport-statistics-great-britain-2021
  the average time taken to travel to work was 28 minutes across all modes, 3 minutes faster than 2019’s average
  So just the train portion of the commute would be something like double the average British total commute length.
  That's a considerable chunk of one's day spent commuting.