With the prime minister set to abandon the HS2 project north of Birmingham, the former Eurostar director who oversaw the launch of High Speed 1 has urged Rishi Sunak to complete the line to Manchester – with slower trains and a few years of delay.
Paul Charles was communications director of Eurostar from 2003 to 2006 and oversaw the opening of the first stretch of HS1 in September 2003.