This week, the United Kingdom government canceled one of its key transit initiatives, the expansion of the High Speed 2 rail network between Birmingham and Manchester.
In the keynote speech at the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the cancellation was due to rising costs, the lack of business travelers returning to the rail system following the pandemic and project mismanagement. He said the budget would be better spent on other transportation initiatives and the northern regions of the country affected by this decision will still benefit from the reallocation of spending.
The rail expansion would have benefited hotels in northern areas of the U.K., offering guests shorter trip times and smoother riding experiences while making destinations farther more efficient for weekend or business trips.
Sunak’s newly announced transportation initiatives for the north will not start until 2029, with the new £36 billion budget to be spent between 2029 and 2040, according to news outlet Yorkshire Live.
The cancellation of the HS2 project has been criticized as damaging the reputation of the government’s “leveling up” project. The initiative is meant to provide investment and a sharing of economic benefits to northern regions of the country and to Scotland. For a time, the HS2 expansion was touted as being an integral part of the plan.
Anil Khanna, managing director of KE Hotels, which owns the Moxy Manchester City hotel among others, told Hotel News Now he was not shocked by the news.
“It’s a disappointing but unsurprising outcome. It’s a shame HS2 works were not commenced north to south, and the commitments to further northern infrastructure investment cannot be taken seriously as they do not commence until 2029,” he said.
“The northern cities of Manchester and Birmingham were relying on this investment, and [this news] sadly plays to the narrative that the investment has all gone into the south,” he added.
Conservative Party leaders originally greenlit the High Speed 2 rail expansion in 2013, touting it as a way of bringing more connectivity and thus investment into the U.K’s northern cities and balancing the country's economy away from London and the Southeast. In 2009, the Labour Party administration set up the creation of a non-departmental government body to fund and administer HS2.
Costs have skyrocketed ever since, and parts of the new network — notably the eastern portion to the large Yorkshire city of Leeds — have already been canceled.
In the June half-year report to Parliament, officials wrote: “HS2 has advised [the Department for Transport] that its projected costs for Phase One would exceed the target cost of £40.3 billion ($42.82 billion) if unmitigated.”
New Civil Engineer magazine reported the initial 2013 estimated cost for Phase One was less than £20 billion. The outlet writes that before Sunak’s announcement, HS2 “was supposed to be a game changer for the U.K.’s transport network, truly ‘leveling up’ neglected parts of the nation and adding capacity to its already oversubscribed railways.”
Sarah Mulholland, deputy chief executive at business membership organization Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said she's focusing on parts of the expansion that remain on the drawing board.
“The £12 billion allocated for Liverpool to Manchester means that part of Phase 2b of HS2 can still be built. We now need a commitment from the prime minister to not seek to stop the passage of the Hybrid Bill, which is essential to being able to build the first phase of Northern Powerhouse Rail from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly,” she told Hotel News Now in an email interview.
One day, the full vision of the HS2 expansion might be realized, Mulholland said.
“The passage of the Hybrid Bill will allow any future government to build HS2 in full, and this close to a general election, a change in direction could happen if any future review shows that the prime minister’s plans for the West Coast mainline are indeed unworkable,” she said, referring to the next nationwide vote that must take place on or before Jan. 28, 2025.
Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, the U.K.’s largest hotel and hospitality membership group, said she was saddened the government had canceled the main part of the project but said she, too, is looking at the positives.
“It’s very disappointing that a major infrastructure project like HS2 is being scrapped, but investment in transport across the north of England, connecting cities and improving transport links, is positive. This investment will benefit commuters and leisure travelers alike,” she said. “It is important that the country is as interconnected as possible, and that infrastructure projects remain under constant review.”