This is The Guardian.

This article contains some strong language.

Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.

For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to the Guardian.com forward slash

long read.

We hate it.

It's desecration.

The Real Cost of HS2 by Patrick Barkham, read by Dermott Daly.

Ten years ago, I walked the route of HS2.

The 140-mile railway proposed to run from London to Birmingham to discover what lay in its path.

Nothing had actually been constructed of this, supposedly the first phase of a high-speed line going

north. The only trace was the furtive ecological consultants mapping newts and bats,

and the train's looming presence in the minds of those who lived along the route.

For many, it was a Westminster vanity project,

symbolising a country run against the interests of the many to line the pockets of the few.

People whose homes were under threat of demolition were petitioning Parliament, campaigning for more tunnels,

or hoping the project would collapse before their farms, paddocks and ancient woodlands were wiped out.

The line, we were told a decade ago, would be completed by 2026.

Like many of the early claims about the longest railway to be built in Britain since the Victorian era, that fact no longer stands.

The fast train is running very late. The official finish date of 233 was recently revised upwards. The best guess is that it will

begin with a four when you can catch a train, one well-informed observer told me. The similar uncertainty

about its cost, but one thing is sure, it is catastrophically over budget. When complete, HS2 will almost

...