The tragedy of HS2 - so grossly exaggerating its benefits that, for me, it amounts to dishonesty and self deception

• £66 billion for a completely new railway mode, while about 100 Kms of the present W Mids rail mode is either unused or is freight only.
• The UK's first, super expensive, high-speed railway line.  Yet basic public transport is nowhere near as good as even the average on the mainland of Europe.
• The only UK railway line safeguarded for use "by freight trains by the 2040s, at the earliest" is used for a short tramway, a Very Light Rail test track and a much longer cycle-walkway extension.
• This is the 120 Kms (but 56 Kms unused in the middle) Black Country Railway between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby.
• The much-vaunted increased capacity that will be available once HS2 is open has now been found out to mean ONLY increasing the length of our railway lines!
• It only increases the choice, NOT capacity, for travellers going directly between London, Brum and its airport.
• They can choose between flying and HS2.  However, passengers for other intercity stations have only the existing service that might be less frequent when HS2 is open.
• Non-HS2 passengers get the same old story of tired rolling stock and stations on the WCML that must remain after HS2 is shooting past them.
• The £66 billion might have been used to modernise and upgrade the existing railway network.
• The £66 billion goes to only benefit a small minority of railway passengers who could, anyway, continue to use plane travel between the capital and Brum.
• Why are they singled out for special, super-duper treatment while the rest of us have second-rate public transport and are paying for their totally unnecessary, high-flying, lifestyle?
• For me, this is a dishonest use of taxes, especially when every pound spent is yet another pound in weight of GHG emissions to worsen the climate emergency and worsen finite, vital resources.
• Perhaps, the majority of the British public is misled by this flash, swanky lie that ALL rail users will benefit from HS2 increasing the mirage/illusion/scam of 'capacity'.
• It is a wasteful and unnecessary duplication of an adequate, existing London to Brum railway line

We in the rich West, are so entitled and well off in every way, already.  Yet we demand and expect, ever more prosperity and the very best of everything.  Social injustice, in my book!  Climate blindness, too!  But, what rich, right-wing governments provide for their rich clientele.

So more of the war-ravaged, hungry, miserable hordes pile into the overcrowded small boats to get to our capitalist dystopia for a better life.  The hordes fleeing the poverty and environmental degradation and war-ravaged countries from our wars, our arms exports and our greedy economic growth and growth of climate killing greenhouse gases.