A fair amount of knickers were in a twist this week after Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement of an extension to the UK’s proposed high-speed rail project.
The £32 billion scheme will now be extended north from Birmingham along two branch lines linking Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester to the new network.
The Government estimates HS2 will slash journey times between Manchester and London by an hour, to 68 minutes. Connection times between cities across Middle England will also be dramatically reduced as a result.
But the project has been less than universally welcomed, with critics saying it will be a horrendously expensive white elephant that will destroy the countryside and do little to promote economic regeneration.
Such attitudes smack of Nimbyism and a lack of foresight. The Chancellor rightly hit back, saying that doing nothing was not a choice for a progressive economy.
He argued that if the Victorians had baulked at building the UK’s current railway network which has changed little in profile since the days of steam or if Britain’s motorways had been left unbuilt, the country would be in a much worse position than it already finds itself in.
It is unassailable logic a modern, vibrant, upwardly mobile economy must be underpinned by the best possible infrastructure. That is why the UK simply can’t afford not to build the new lines.
The £32bn is a huge amount of cash for the public purse to fork out, and significant investment will be required from the private sector if HS2 is to be fully realised.
But the headline figure is still less than was thrown at supporting the banks during the financial crisis, and peanuts in the context of overall public expenditure during the 20-odd-year HS2 build period.
Budgets will inevitably slip they always do with these types of major infrastructure project but it is also worth remembering that the cash ploughed into HS2 will support thousands of much-needed construction jobs, high-value engineering posts and design roles.
That is cash that will find its way into shop tills, be passed over pub counters and benefit businesses across the land.
HS2 is exactly the kind of ambitious scheme the depressed UK economy has been crying out for. If it were up to me, I would be pushing ahead with HS2 now rather than waiting years it is likely to be 2017 at the earliest to lay the first sections of track.
Indeed, I would significantly uprate the limited ambitions for high-speed rail to ensure the whole country felt the warm glow of economic regeneration.
The concept of high-speed rail appears to have greater support amongst the general public in Scotland than south of the border, and the Scottish Government is desperate to ensure Edinburgh and Glasgow are invited to the party.
That must happen, but a commitment from the UK Government to press north is unlikely to come any time soon, considering the backdrop of the Scottish independence referendum in late 2014.
But I see no reason why work cannot start now on establishing a high-speed network in Scotland, with the two ends eventually being brought together.
Rail will play an increasing role in public and commercial transport in the years ahead, and the UK as a whole has to invest now.
Speculate to accumulate or risk being shoved into the economic sidings for decades? There really is no option.