Shapps quells HS2 speculation

Transport secretary Grant Shapps appeared to quell speculation that the government could pull the plug on HS2, insisting the government is “building it for 100 years”.

Speaking in conversation with broadcaster Iain Dale at the Conservative party conference, Shapps said that despite the downturn in public transport use caused by the pandemic, “people will want to travel to meet each other” and freight needed to be taken off the roads.

The transport secretary also addressed the HGV driver shortage, saying the government was aware of it 10 years ago. It was a “systemic problem”, he said, of issues around salaries and the quality of truck stops.

He admitted that some people who had been driving in the UK no longer were post Brexit, but also stressed that Britain’s exit from the EU had “provided some flexibility” in terms of the speed at which drivers could become qualified.

The transport secretary, who declared himself “a railway enthusiast”, also spoke about the competition to host the headquarters for the newly created Great British Railways. GBR is a “new way of bringing the railways back together,” he explained, insisting the headquarters would not simply be in one of the traditional railway towns of Crewe or York.