I predicted years ago that this would be the result. Birmingham would just become a commuter town for London, because nobody can afford to live in London anymore.
Even without Covid I don’t believe HS2 ever would have reached as far as Leeds or Manchester - Tories are just too London centric and don’t believe the North jas anything to offer
£50bn to extend the commuter towns of London instead of just investing in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham etc. Absolutely crazy
HS2 is investing in Birmingham - it's going to bring in a lot of urban regeneration, new jobs and increased rail capacity for local services. Just look at all of the multinationals which have recently opened offices in the city centre.
It will do the same for Manchester, Leeds etc by improving the links between the cities of the north.
Yes, northern and trans-pennine services need to be improved but as Andy Burnham has always said it is not a choice between that and HS2 and both are needed. A thriving Manchester Manchester would just put more strain on the WCML.