Durrant, D;
(2025)
What killed HS2? Explaining the loss of political support for the UK’s high-speed rail megaproject.
Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society
, 18
(2)
pp. 359-370.
10.1093/cjres/rsaf005.
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Abstract
Through the case of a hegemonic discourse formed around the UK's cancelled mega-transport project High-Speed Two (HS2), this paper analyses the circumstances of its abandonment. The acquisition and loss of symbolic power are explained through different master and meta narratives. Mechanisms are identified through which HS2 became an 'empty signifier' temporarily filled with symbolic value, standing for different policy aspirations to rebalance the UK's economy. Political speeches and the construction of narratives show how meta narratives around the project shifted and its symbolic value ebbed away to the point the project symbolised failure as opposed to ambition. Thus, when rising costs altered the ratio of costs to benefits, this narrative of failure was available to legitimate HS2's cancellation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | What killed HS2? Explaining the loss of political support for the UK’s high-speed rail megaproject |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/cjres/rsaf005 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf005 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com. |
| Keywords: | HS2, megaprojects, symbols, discourse, master and meta narratives |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211675 |
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