HS2 costs and benefits: a search for clear evidence

A construction site for the HS2 high-speed rail scheme in Euston, London. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PAPhilip Inman asserts that “HS2 has been 15 years in the making and is the best compromise option the transport ministry and its advisers could come up with for improving the UK’s transport system” (Business view, 22 August). HS2’s problem is that it is uncompromising: it was designed to run very fast, and therefore in an almost straight line, worsening its damage to the