The UK’s rail system is an embarrassment when compared to Europe

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France, Germany, Italy and Spain are all now crisscrossed with wonderful high-speed railways, while we have one short link to the Channel Tunnel (PA)

Surely we are not going to see further cuts to the HS2 programme! What is it with the British, our governments and public administration, that – with rare exceptions – we cannot plan long-term infrastructure projects and just get on with them without endless arguments and cutbacks?

France, Germany, Italy and Spain are all now crisscrossed with wonderful high-speed railways – links that are vital to commerce and beneficial to domestic life – while we have one short link to the Channel Tunnel. Birmingham did not need an HS link to London for all the difference it would make in travel time, but incidentally will benefit from fast links to cities in the North and Scotland. Such links would have enabled the UK, a small enough country, to abandon most scheduled internal flights which spew out daily toxic fumes across the country.

Italy, for example, is a less wealthy country than Britain, often administratively challenged, with equally treasured landscapes and wildlife; yet somehow they have found the money to build an HS network often crossing more hilly if not mountainous country than the UK, with a much larger number of expensive tunnels and viaducts than we would need.