The HS2 dream has been derailed – but it hasn’t entirely hit the buffers

So much for a Japanese-style Bullet train whisking you through England in minutes, rather than hours, sighs Sean O’Grady. But perhaps we should let bygones be bygones, as the economists say…

Downing Street has refused to guarantee the HS2 railway line will run to Manchester as planned amid reports Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are in talks about scrapping the project’s second stage (PA) (PA Media)

Economists have a favourite expression for examining the feasibility of badly over-run projects – “bygones are bygones”. Or, in equally colloquial English, there is no point in throwing good money after bad. It’s generally a very shrewd rule: there would be no problem gamblers if the maxim was pasted up on betting websites and bookies’ shops, and perhaps unhappy marriages might be put out of their misery sooner than later.

Which brings us to HS2 and the discussions between the chancellor and prime minister about the bit of the line from Birmingham to Crewe and Manchester.

This is pretty much all that’s left of the original dream of a Japanese-style Bullet train whisking you through the great cities of England in minutes, rather than hours. Well, the ambition to reach Newcastle, York and Leeds has already been abandoned and now the Crewe/Manchester branch is in jeopardy. The reason? Money.