Slow the trains and slow the build to save billions on HS2, advises former Eurostar director

‘High-speed lines have a habit of creating political potholes for ministers,’ says Paul Charles

Action station: London St Pancras International, hub for HS1 to Kent and France (Simon Calder)

With the prime minister set to abandon the HS2 project north of Birmingham, the former Eurostar director who oversaw the launch of High Speed 1 has urged Rishi Sunak to complete the line to Manchester – with slower trains and a few years of delay.

Paul Charles was communications director of Eurostar from 2003 to 2006 and oversaw the opening of the first stretch of HS1 in September 2003.

This 46-mile line runs between the mouth of the Channel Tunnel and Fawkham Junction, which remains the connection between HS1 and the north Kent rail network.

Mr Charles told The Independent: “High-speed lines have a habit of creating political potholes for ministers.

“The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, or High Speed 1, obviously created years of issues for governments, although it was eventually delivered on time and on budget.

“The High Speed 2 project clearly is in danger of creating equal havoc for the current government.

“What Rishi Sunak should be doing is laying out how he can shave £20-30bn off this project – because governments have committed over the last decade to spending at least £50bn or so on this project.

“So he needs to save some of the money and outline clearly how he’s going to do that.

“The most likely option should be to slow it down a bit, so the spec is not so high, and also extend the project for a further three to five years before the line at Manchester opens.

“It is better to have this project for the good of the UK than to abandon it altogether. It’s in danger of becoming the latest white elephant for the government.

“Communicating that as soon as possible will end this farce of ‘will they or won’t they go ahead?’ which is so damaging to future investment in the UK.”

The full HS1 line opened to St Pancras in 2007, serving destinations in north and east Kent as well as carrying Eurostar expresses to Brussels, Paris and beyond.

Meanwhile, a Tory MP representing a Yorkshire constituency who supports the prime minister’s decision to axe HS2 beyond the Midlands has proposed a novel solution to increase capacity between Birmingham and Manchester: making trains longer than existing platforms.

Miriam Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, told the BBC’s The World At One: “Capacity is an issue but I think we could be an awful lot more creative about it.

“You can just add additional carriages on trains and then ask people to move to the middle carriage to get off at the platform.

“There are many, many more creative options we could take to increase capacity.

“It would be a lot cheaper and a lot less disruptive.”