Sorry for any Inconvenience Caused: Why Britain Messed up High Speed Rail

Abstract

High Speed 2—the planned new railway from London to the north of England—is one of the largest and most controversial public sector investment projects Britain has attempted in decades. Much has been written about the huge cost overruns that the project has suffered, and why this led to the eventual cancellation of the line beyond its first phase now under construction. In this article, we explore two under-appreciated aspects of this story: first, the (unintended) consequences of those forms of professional expertise privileged by decision making machinery, and second how the politics of charisma are essential in understanding how the project both came to prominence and subsequently fell from grace.