HS2 is the wildest white elephant in British history. Please put it out of its misery | Simon Jenkins

The government is in thrall to the sunk-cost fallacy. Scrap the project, and use the money for a renaissance in urban transit So it is official, as if that makes a difference. After a 15-month review by the new chief executive, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed that HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039. Alexander called the original design a “massively over-specced folly” and called the increase in time and costs “obscene”. Indeed it possib...

By Simon Jenkins