For a bit of balance, HS2 is needed whatever anyone thinks of it and the people behind it. Why? I'll tell you.... sadly it has been promoted as just as a high speed line and not on the capacity issue. I drive trains on the West Coast Mainline, Midland Mainline and parts of the old Great Western and I can tell you that the extra capacity that HS2 will provide is
very much needed, despite the (current) lower passenger numbers due to covid. Traffic levels and requirements are on the rise, the southern half of the WCML in particular is already at full capacity and when post covid life returns to normal it will reach bursting point. The idea of simply adding extra lines along the existing route was looked into but the bottlenecks through the towns and cities along the route would render that idea pointless, hence why HS2 is being built on a separate alignment, with much of it in tunnels.
Putting the higher speed passenger traffic onto the new route will allow more pathing for regular freight and passenger traffic on the WCML, running at consistent speeds which in turn will allow a more frequent service pattern.
Mild off topic rant over, as you were!
