A tram in Manchester.

The government announced today that it is to scrap the leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Leeds. The government stated that what is to replace HS2 will be faster and deliverable ten years sooner than HS2. If replacing HS2 has such huge benefits, one can only guess as to why the leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester hasn’t been scrapped too.

As a consolation to Leeds, the prime minister announced that the city will be given £200 million to start planning its own tram system – money which is presumably intended for consultants. You can read more on this here.