Opinion | Chinese investors should avoid Britain's rotten egg rail project
After factoring in perceived gains and high costs against the envisaged benefits, getting on board high-speed railway may not be a good idea
According to reports last week, Chinese state companies are eager to invest in Britain's planned HS2 high-speed railway from London to Birmingham, and beyond to Manchester and Leeds.
They would be better advised to find another use for their capital. Although construction work has yet to start, HS2 shows all the signs of a classic British cock-up in the making.
One former government adviser says the arguments for building the new line smell so bad, it should called not HS2 but H2S, after the chemical formula for hydrogen sulphide, the poisonous compound that gives rotten eggs their characteristic foul stink.
Enthusiasts for the project rightly point out that Britain's existing rail network, built in the first half of the 19th century, is struggling to handle the demands now placed on it.
Even the fastest trains travel at no more than 200km/h, much the same as 40 years ago. Meanwhile at peak times overcrowding is reaching "intolerable" levels.
With passenger demand projected to increase by 2 per cent a year over the next 30 years, the existing system just won't be able to cope, say HS2's backers.