Robin Miller-Stott

Overlaying the HS2+HS3 route with a map of population density in the UK (from a paper on air quality, but it sufficies for this purpose). There are two main concentrations of population in the UK - London and its immediate surroundings, and the ring of Birmingham-Manchester-Leeds, which i'll refer to as the "North" here even though it encompasses some of the Midlands and not all of the actual North. The only part of the whole network which is being built now is that which connects London to Birmingham; which will benefit Birmingham somewhat, but mostly will benefit commuters near London. The cancelled part of the network would've bought the North closer to being able to function as a continuous economic unit. Manchester to Leeds in 25 minutes, Birmingham to Leeds in 46 minutes. A paranoid Northerner might suspect that politicians in London intentionally sabotaged such integration. As it is, the government breathlessly announces that you will still be able to board high speed services on regular tracks, and they will only go high speed on the existing line (as if they just thought of the idea, and that wasn't already the plan during phase one anyway). So the trains will only serve to get people from the North to London and back. They are perhaps genuinely baffled as to why someone would board a train and not go to London.