Grant Shapps said the Oakervee review of HS2 had shown a rethink was needed, and a subsequent National Infrastructure Commission report meant “a flexible approach” and “strengthening regional rail would be most economically beneficial”.
The Conservative MP Huw Merriman, the chair of the transport select committee, said the announcement showed “the danger of selling perpetual sunlight and leaving it to others to explain the moonlight”. He said ministers had long said it was not “either/or” HS2 or NPR, while people in the north would now think they had neither.
Sir Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP for Gainsborough, said the north-east had “heard these promises again and again” to improve rail lines. He said while HS2 was “a white elephant”, it was now “a white elephant missing a leg”.
However, Stop HS2 campaigners said the cancellation of the eastern leg of the project was “vindication of everything we’ve been saying for a decade”. A spokesperson, Joe Rukin, said: “You can deliver more benefits to more people more quickly for less money without the massive environmental impact by upgrading existing infrastructure, reopening old lines and providing sustainable local transport.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/18/hs2-rail-leg-to-leeds-scrapped-grant-shapps-confirms
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