The HS2 money should have been spent on improving what's already there. I've travelled thousands of miles by train, and on major routes, the land is there already to allow quadrupling of tracks because it was like that before. OK there are a few urban bottlenecks such as North out of Leeds, and North out of Sheffield, both on urban double track viaducts, with Sheffield initially in a deep stone lined cutting, but to solve such minor issues would have cost a lot less than HS2.
Politicians like to think they are educated people. Sadly on specialised projects you need geek knowledge to be project effective and cost effective, and with a level of integrity which precludes back handers and mates deals. That's mission impossible. The IT contracts which I saw first hand in the Civil Service were a disgrace. Individuals who couldn't do the job migrated into IT and then called the shots..............
