I WAS never a great fan of HS2, believing that it would have been better to sprinkle the largesse across the existing network, bringing benefits to our ailing railways in general. If it had to be built I believed it would have been better to construct it on the trackbed of the old Great Central Railway from Marylebone to the north, closed in the 1960s. This would have saved many billions as well as sparing much scarring of the countryside. …
