It does look like HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester is set to be either cancelled or heavily delayed for a decade or more, regrettably. Or just ‘not high speed’ north of Birmingham and running on the regular West Coast lines from Birmingham to Manchester (which may even give Stoke a look-in, once a day?).

If there’s to be a decade long delay then, in the meantime, how about using the purchased route for a superb (if temporary) Birmingham – Stafford – Stone – Crewe bicycle ‘motorway’? That shouldn’t cost too much, I’d imagine. Just six strips of tarmac, all the way, presumably. Three going north, three south. Boy-racers and electric-bikes in the ‘fast’ lane, slow ‘trundlers and tots’ in the slow lane.