I don't think it's going to reinstate local traffic to the Lakes, let me get the train to Bristol airport and construct the three miserable miles of track needed so I can get on the train at Belfast International at the other end, or repair the devastation done to the seasonal Cornish traffic by the Beeching cuts. It's crazy that we're even thinking about HS2 when there are major ports and airports not on the rail network.
HS2 is not a non-functional thing; it will create all sorts of benefits. It will also cost almost three times NASA's estimate for returning to the moon with a permanent base.
HS2 is needed a lot less than a whole range of other rail network problems. Jesus, if they could start with removing the three steps at the top of the ramp in Paddington that are the only things* preventing wheelchair access from the Circle line to the mainline platforms it would be more useful! Probably (only probably) be cheaper too.
*I'm discounting the single, frequently out of order, lift.
However, HS2 is being done alongside spending on the existing infrastructure. As this table demonstrates:
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As £25bn has been spent on enhancements to the existing network since HS2 was announced in 2009.
That figure doesn't include, maintenance, new trains, HS2 or the vast majority of the spending on Crossrail.
It has also risen each and every year over that time period, including in the last three years as spend on HS2 had started to be a significant amount.
It also has to be viewed in the light of the appropriately 100 million single journeys a year (predicted 300,000/day). At £56bn (excluding any local service benefits produced) that's less then £10 for the build costs.
Based on the current network maintenance costs and scaled for the size of the network then that's <£1 in HS2 maintenance costs. However even then that figure would be too high compared to the actual, due to fact that there's some very expensive bits on the existing network, not least due to drainage issues (or more accurately the lack of good/any drainage) which HS2 shouldn't suffer from. Add in the ability to drive alongside the track for narky the whole route and it allows maintenance teams to get to where they need to be and therefore do more work in the same maintenance window (little walking down the track before work can start).
There's going to be things which would improve matters which aren't obvious at the moment, including journey time improvements between places miles from the HS2 network.
One such example is that by using existing services (based on to Paddington/Euston times) changing at Old Oak Common would be comparable for Southampton/Birmingham and faster for Southampton/Manchester, Leeds, York, Scotland, etc.
Yes you'd have to change twice, but that's been allowed for, but it would also provide a more frequent service (2tph in addition to the current 1tph on a direct service and also (for locations other than Birmingham) in addition the the current 1tph involving a change at New Street.
That's going to allow XC to cater for more people at the intermediate locations. That's before you consider the possibility of changes to the existing services or new schemes which could reduce the number of changes or the complexity of changing trains get to Old Oak Common (such as the often suggested Southampton to Paddington service or schemes like the Southern Approach to Heathrow. The latter of which could enable users from a lot of the SWR network to benefit from a 4tph service between Woking and Old Oak Common, so would enable connections with the 3tph to Manchester and the 3tph to Birmingham, rather than being limited by the Reading/Basingstoke corridor).
With regards to the 3x the return to the moon costs with a permanent base, what is your source for that? As the figures I've seen are for the short term getting back to the moon, with a moon base being established beyond the end date of that funding. It also would only benefit a few people (really only a few, not the perceived few of HS2. Which would have the same passenger flow as Waterloo station or the whole of the TGV network, even thought it's 1/3 the size of the TGV network).