Travel expert Simon Calder says scrapping HS2 will be Rishi Sunak's enduring shame

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, is at Rishi Sunak’s local rail station, London Waterloo – normally the busiest transport terminal in Europe, but today running only a skeleton service due to the 15th walk-out by train drivers belonging to the Aslef union in a long and bitter dispute over pay and working arrangements.

Addressing the prime minister directly, he says: “You are in Manchester announcing the cancellation of trains from that great city to Birmingham and the South – not just today but for the future.

“Yes, all those high speed expresses that we have been promised for the last 13 years are not now going to be running from Manchester."

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