‘High Speed 2’ was to be the crown jewel of British rail Bringing the antiquated and unreliable north-west line up to date, it would connect central London with Manchester and Leeds via Birmingham, reducing travel time and combatting the North–South divide. It was, however, not to be. Dogged by mismanagement, overspending and incompetence, HS2 has collapsed, reduced to a much smaller line connecting Birmingham with the outskirts of London – Euston, the central London terminus, still seemingly unreachable. All of this has cost taxpayers around sixty-six billion pounds. In a...