The first major account of HS2 – and how it went so wrong
‘A jaunty account of a monumental cock-up. Makes the unbelievable readable.’ Sir Michael Palin
‘High-Speed 2’ was to be the crown jewel of British rail. The first Intercity railway built north of London in over a century, it would connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, bridging the North–South divide and propelling Britain’s infrastructure into the twenty-first century.
Dogged by mismanagement, overspending and incompetence, HS2 has collapsed. What remains is a bleeding stump between Birmingham and the outskirts of London – Euston, the central London terminus, still seemingly unreachable. All of this has cost taxpayers tens of billions.
Sally Gimson meets with the politicians, engineers and ordinary people affected by the failure of HS2. Travelling from demolished council estates in Camden to ghost towns along the now cancelled Northern branch, Off the Rails provides a forensic examination of how a vital social project imploded.
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'Deeply researched.' Daily Telegraph, ★★★★
'Forensic, gripping.' Sir Ivor Crewe
'Penetrating, fair and ultimately furious.' Financial Times
About the Author :
Sally Gimson is a journalist and former deputy editor of Index on Censorship. She has also worked for the Observer and Sunday Telegraph. She was a Labour councillor for Camden – the London borough most affected by HS2 – for seven years.
Review :
'The debacle described in Sally Gimson’s Off the Rails showed the world that the country that invented the railways can no longer build one.'
'Who is responsible for the shaming catastrophe that is HS2? The answer, says Sally Gimson, in her penetrating, fair and ultimately furious exploration of how the landmark high-speed rail project failed, is a cast list of the British state.'
'Sally Gimson has done the public a great service by setting out clearly and succinctly the chronology of woolly thinking that has led to the current debacle... This is a story of equal-opportunities failure to which every part of the British establishment has contributed... Read this book with a stiff drink.'
'This book exposes in intricate and cruel detail the scandal that is HS2. The blame may be thickly spread, but Gimson finds the key culprits.'
'The rail line, which was given parliamentary approval eight years ago, was supposed to revolutionise British transport... However, the project was blighted from the start, as the writer Sally Gimson makes clear in this succinct, uncompromising analysis.'
'A pacy, readable and infuriating account of how what started as a bold vision of the future crumbled into an embarrassing failure. Gimson cuts through the noise to offer a clear-eyed and vital explanation of mistakes we must learn from.'
'Sally Gimson’s exhaustive book – the first detailed account of the project... The book is deeply researched and consequently highly detailed.' ★★★★
'A forensic, gripping analysis of the mother of all government blunders which shines an unforgiving light on the structural weakness of the British state.'
'Gimson has done yeoman work with this book. Often relying on interviews with key players, she manages simultaneously to map out the byzantine mess of social actors, interest groups, laws, policies, back-room deals, and major political events, and to deliver a searing, non-partisan indictment of British state performance. Read it, and weep.'
'The story of HS2 is a reflection on the failings of the British state not of simply one project or organisation. Neither those against or those of us for it have won – everyone has lost, and this book tells the story of how and why that happened.'
