
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told a Transport Select Committee that the HS2 project will be vital for enabling people to meet each other unless teleportation becomes a reality.
Mr Shapps continues to back the high-speed rail project despite the collapse in demand for travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related articles
- HS2 protesters will stay in tunnels โfor as long as it takesโ
- Rail industry marks Captain Tom Moore achievements
- Bachmann Europe announce new products for Spring 2021
He told the Commons Transport Select Committee that โhumans will always want to be in touch with humansโ and HS2 will be vital โunless we think that people are going to be able to move around in some other formโฆ teleport ourselves or some other way of getting aroundโ.
Enjoy more Railways Illustrated Magazine reading every month.
Click here to subscribe & save.

Mr Shapps cited the pre-pandemic usage of the West Coast Main Line โ originally built in the 1930s โ as a reason why HS2 will be popular.
โI donโt think itโs a stretch to say that I think we will be back to people wanting to meet people and will be very, very grateful in 50 years and 100 years and maybe 200 years that we have that weโve done this. My view is that we shouldnโt be stopping and switching and changing now.โ
Committee chairman Huw Merriman told Buckingham Tory MP Greg Smith, who urged Mr Shapps to re-evaluate the need for the project, that he hopes the ministerโs answers โdonโt cause you to start tunnelling under Euston, joining Swampyโ.
Anti-HS2 protesters have spent a week in underground tunnels near the station, and have said they will stay in the underground tunnels for as long as it takes, even after a judge rejected a legal bid to halt efforts to evict them.
Mr Shapps also revealed that he has spent 18 months working on a White Paper in incorporate the findings and recommendations of the Government-commissioned Williams Review into Britainโs railways.
The report was initially due to be published in autumn 2019, but was delayed by the general election and the pandemic.
Mr Shapps said he is โvery keenโ to release the review.
โYou wonโt, I hope, have to wait too long for a Williams-Shapps White Paper on rail.โ