Politicians, senior civil servants and HS2 bosses have run what should have been a symbol of national renewal and connectivity into the ground. A decade from now – when London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds were due to be superconnected by high-speed rail – it may at last to be possible to buy a ticket from a former patch of wasteland in west London to the West Midlands.The single most damaging act of national self harm was wrought by Rishi Sunak. At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester in 2023, the then-prime minister gleefully announced cancelling the most critical stretch of the line – between Birmingham and Manchester.But along the way to this unforgivable affront to northern England, many others took a turn at increasing the cost and reducing the value of HS2. Who could forget Boris Johnson’s “Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands”, published two years earlier, which triggered the disintegration of the eastern leg to Yorkshire. Ministers justified the amputation by saying that travellers between London and West Yorkshire could simply wait on a train at Manchester Piccadilly while it reversed and then headed over the Pennines to Leeds. “This madness creates a new east-west divide now down the Pennines,” said rail guru Nigel Harris.The latest reset, announced by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, will see the much-diminished project finally start carrying passengers in a decade or so.Only then will HS2 start relieving the strain on the Victorian rail network by taking 125mph intercity trains off the West Coast Main Line, allowing many more local, regional and freight services to run. The main purpose of HS2 is to unlocking extra capacity on Britain’s overcrowded rail network, not to slice half-an-hour off the journey time from Birmingham to London.HS2 is now led by a serious railwayman, Mark Wild, who rescued London’s Crossrail project from national ignominy. I believe he can be relied upon to deliver, and that this will be the last time the grand plan is rewritten.A flurry of statements and documents issued at the same time as Ms Alexander announced the reset reveal more about how we got into this mess.This is my assessment of the key points.“By bringing businesses closer together, HS2 will make it easier to share knowledge and enable them to access more workers in different locations. As a result, HS2 will attract new businesses to local areas, in turn driving increased investment and economic activity.”That claim could be copied and pasted from the original 2009 pitch for the new high-speed rail link. Had the whole thing been built – dramatically reducing journey times from Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester to Birmingham and London – it would be valid. But I do not envisage more than a marginal boost to businesses at either end of the much-reduced line. I hope I am proved wrong.“The Company’s purpose should have been clearly understood: to deliver a high-speed railway within the scope and cost envelope set by Parliament and government.”Although no names are named, the directors of HS2 are held accountable for what appears to be an extraordinary lack of curiosity about how the project was going. As the report says: “If they believed that the Executive had been captured, was suffering from optimism bias or was ‘strategically misrepresenting’ the real picture, then it was their duty to call this out in the most vigorous way.”They did not do so, and apparently found nothing awry with taxpayers footing the £100m-plus bill for a “bat shed” at the behest of Natural England.“HS2 will provide people with more choice about where to work and where to study. Economic growth will also be driven by increased leisure travel, as it becomes quicker and easier for people to visit friends or explore different parts of the UK.”At the time the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, was saying this on Wednesday, her department was making it tougher for people to visit friends or explore different parts of the UK. Avanti West Coast, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland, has been told to cut one in eight of its intercity expresses during the summer. There will be fewer trains linking London with Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester during late July and August.“The UK needs HS2 more than ever if we are to truly rebalance our economy and help the Midlands and the North realise their full potential.”This is the odd one out: not a new statement from the government, but from then-HS2 chief executive Mark Thurston in his annual report – which also included the assertion from the HS2 chair: “At 345 miles HS2 is a truly national project of the kind we have not seen in this country since the Victorian era.” In that year Mr Thurston – the longest-serving CEO of HS2 – earned over £650,000, including a £46,000 bonus. He was kicked out in 2023, and now runs Anglian Water."HS2 Ltd did not have the right skills, structure or culture to deliver a programme of this scale successfully.”That is down to the politicians and civil servants who created and directed it. I hope future generations will take note.Read more: New rail links are welcome developments – but are ‘undermined’ by legacy shortcomings