Extremely depressing news - many other countries in Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland) plus even much poorer countries than the UK (Indonesia, Morocco) are managing to build high speed rail lines, why can't we?
Just another example of the decline of this country under the Tories, if I were a betting man I'd put my money on the other projects announced today never materialising as well... well, except the road related ones, since the Tories seem to love cars and hate the environment so much.
Also, if HS2 was costing so much, how can they justify spending the money on other projects anyway? It's why it makes me think that the money will never appear for these other projects, as they're just trying to cut out a big budget item and pretend that they'll totally spend the money on others instead (when the reality is they don't care as the spending commitments for these projects are probably after the next election).
Feels like outright sabotage, bet they'll be quick about selling off the land acquired for HS2 as well to make sure that Labour can't restart it if they get elected.