Off-track?
HS2 - the proposed high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham - is officially judged to return £1.60 for every pound spent on the scheme. But even this is an overestimate according to Chris Castles and David Parish, both former partners of PwC.
They argue that HS2 will reduce traffic on adjoining motorways by no more than 1 percent, do little to reduce domestic air ravel, is based on passenger figures that are at least 30 percent too high, and will do less to bridge the North-South divide than transport projects announced in the 2011 Autumn Statement. They also say capacity problems could be solved more quickly and cheaply by other means.