Things were never certain to go ahead. Initial feasibility work that demonstrated it was reasonable from a technical standpoint to make the changes needed to run trains, and to find paths in the timetable for a viable service. The next stage is more detailed costing and design, at which point another decision would/will be made. Given the jump in costs (both construction inflation and general cost of living) and post-covid uncertainty about travel patterns, it's not surprising the business case isn't as strong as was initially thought - although note this doesn't mean the business case is doomed.Leaving aside the guff about HS2, most concerning was:
"It would appear that the business case isn’t as strong as might be hoped."
I had the general impression after 2022 that things were almost certain to go ahead... has in fact nothing happened since then, is it completely stalled?
It's also worth pointing out that when things were moving quickly, there was significant political weight behind such schemes. Since then, politicians have played musical chairs (twice) and the priorities have changed substantially.
Many do, but Hythe was one of the more sensible proposals - it needed relatively light work to the track, had a clear service to run (and paths, albeit tight, to run in), and has a solid economic rationale - lots of development in a rapidly expanding commuter town on the Solent/Southampton Water that could be tempted out of their cars if a good service could be provided given local congestion.On the recent Green Signals podcast, Richard Bowker made the point that a lot of these reverse Beeching "let's open X Y Z" lines because we should" schemes are made by well meaning people, but with not much footing in reality. He was referring specifically to the Waverley line south of Tweedbank (which I agree with him about).
I wonder if lots of these other proposed schemes also fall in to that camp?