HS2: the zombie train that refuses to die | Simon Jenkins

It is the most extravagant infrastructure project in British history – but nobody can say why we need it. How did HS2 ever get so far?

Some time this summer, a piledriver should break ground outside Euston station in London. It will mark the start of the most extravagant infrastructure project in Britain’s history: High Speed 2, a railway line running 335 miles from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. The line is budgeted at 55bn, although late last year its cost was widely...