HS2 represents the single biggest investment in Britain’s transport system since the motorway programme of the 1960s, and will be the first major national railway to be built since Victorian times. It is not only the government’s biggest major project, but also the largest infrastructure scheme in Europe. 

For some this scheme to build a brand-new high-speed line connecting London and Birmingham in the first phase and then on to Manchester and Leeds, is history in the making, while others dismiss it as a white elephant of gargantuan proportions. What is undeniable is that the vision of a high-speed rail network, which began a decade ago when the government created HS2 Ltd, is, against all the odds, still very much alive.

Helped in no small part by cross-party political support, HS2 has survived years of austerity that have seen cuts in public spending, several legal challenges in the high courts and years of campaigning against it. 

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