On: The five-year engineering feat Germany pulled off ...

[rich_sasha]

HS2 is many years delayed and billions (tens of?) over budget. And drastically cut down.

Not sure I'd use it as a success story.

[bionade24 → rich_sasha]

You can call it failed or success after 10 years in operation. Before that, it's still an ongoing process. Infrastructure is for the long-term.

[danw1979 → bionade24]

Parts of HS2 (the northern bits) won’t ever be built. From where I’m sitting in York, it already looks like a failure.

[Symbiote → danw1979]

That isn't a failure of the planning system, or from interference from environmentalists.

It's a failure of government and the British democracy.

[dgroshev → Symbiote]

It's both. Look up council complaints and demands for the HS2, they're full of unreasonable NIMBY stuff like asking for the line to be put in a tunnel because it comes closer than 100m to an industrial estate. They didn't get it of course, but as a "compromise" they got high berms after a lengthy consultation/bargaining, both of which inflate the cost.