London, United Kingdom

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced the scrapping of the northern leg of the HS2 train line — from West Midlands to Manchester.

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Sunak's speech

"I'm ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project. And in its place we will reinvest every single penny - 36 billion pounds - in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the midlands, across the country," said Sunak

Better value for money and a shorter project delivery time will reportedly be the reasons he will state for this move. 

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While the northern leg will be scrapped, work has started on the London to Birmingham leg of the HS2.

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Talking to BBC earlier, Defence Minister Grant Shapps had hinted the scrapping. He said: "We have to wait for his actual speech to hear exact confirmation." 

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Sunak's Conservative Party is badly lagging the opposition Labour Party in polls. An election is expected next year in UK.

Anger over scrapping

Prior to announcement, the possibility of scrapping of the HS2 train triggered a wave of anger among local leaders and businesses. Sunak's decision has not gone down well with his party colleagues and with members of the Opposition and it has caused anger.

Andy Burnham, the labour mayor of Greater Durham, has labelled the move disrespectful of "people across the whole of the North."

"It just proves there are so many people in politics - many in the Tory party - that think they can treat the north of England differently to the way they treat other parts of the country," he told BBC.

Andy Street, the Conservative West Midlands mayor, called a press conference on Monday (Oct 5th) where he "warned" Sunak that getting rid of the HS2 line was equivalent to "cancelling the future".

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Thirty businesses, including football club Manchester United, had written to Sunak, urging him to commit to the HS2 line, and dodge "economic self-sabotage".

The announcement put a full stop to weeks of speculation over the future of the HS2 line. The line in question was supposed to help cut down travel time, create more space on the rail network and boost jobs outside London. However, the latest estimates show that the cost to deliver the project may come to £71 billion ($85.8 billion). This is a significant increase from the 2019 prices, which failed to account for the spike in material and labour costs. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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