00:00For communities living alongside HS2, the new railway has already meant years of construction, diversions and road closures.
00:09Around Litchfield, that disruption is continuing while major work towards Hansacre has been pushed further back.
00:16Some essential engineering is still going ahead, but the finished railway remains years away.
00:23HS2, which was mooted in the dying days of the Labour administration before the coalition came in,
00:29so we're talking sort of 2010. What are we, 2026, so some 16 years on.
00:37The delay mean, of course, that's the HS2, will not be running before 2039.
00:43So there used to be a joke, you know, will I live long enough to see HS2?
00:46You know, the joke is no longer funny, dare I say it.
00:48But of course, more importantly, this was something that we were going to get 300 odd miles of sort of
00:53rail track
00:53going, branching out into parts of the north of England.
00:56Now we're down to sort of 100 odd miles from sort of London or somewhere in London up to sort
01:01of to Curzon Street or just beyond it.
01:03And it's going to cost in excess of 100 billion.
01:07So three times the sort of the estimated cost for about a third of the sort of line.
01:11People are asking, is it worth the sort of the cost?
01:15Now, of course, this is spread out over sort of that period of time.
01:17But more importantly, what difference would it make to Birmingham?
01:20I suspect that when we get close to completion, we'll see a lot of property development.
01:24Indeed, some of that's already starting to happen in Digburn.
01:26So it may sort of regenerate it.
01:28But the point is that it's so far in the future, people have lost interest.
01:32And of course, in a time where we're expecting to sort of go through sort of aspects of austerity,
01:37government departments have to cut back.
01:39We're still spending sort of huge amounts of money on this thing.
01:42Admittedly, it keeps tens of thousands of people in employment.
01:44But I suspect many people believe if that money was sort of spent elsewhere or local train routes or the
01:50east-west connections,
01:51then, of course, it would be sort of far better spent.
01:53But, of course, there is the old adage, when in a hole stop digging, well, as far as HS2 is
01:58concerned,
01:59they continue to dig with gusto.
02:01The latest timetable puts the first services between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common in West London
02:08between 2036 and 2039.
02:12The complete scheme, including Euston and the Hansacre Connection north of Litchfield,
02:17is not expected until between 2040 and 2043.
02:23Construction between Curdworth and Hansacre has been deferred,
02:26with major work expected to restart in the early 2030s.
02:31HS2 is designed to increase rail capacity, improve connections and support economic growth.
02:37But communities along the route are being asked to tolerate disruption for considerably longer
02:42before those promised benefits are fully realised.
02:46Undoubtedly, the aspect of road closures around the West Midlands has had a sort of impact.
02:51So, you know, eventually it will complete and perhaps we will forget.
02:54But, hey, there's been an awful lot of sort of pain in the process of this.
02:56And, of course, we're all going to pay big in the sort of long term.
02:59We're going to pay for $8,000.
02:59But, I mean, we don't pay for much time, but we're going to pay for $4,000.
02:59So, we're going to pay for $1,000.
Comments