UK government faces criticism over high-speed rail revisions

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The British government has came under fire for scrapping a long-planned high-speed rail line to the northern English city of Leeds as part of a package of revisions that potentially reduces costs by tens of billions of pounds. Critics argue that the scaling back of plans will leave many parts of northern England at an economic disadvantage, and runs against Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s stated ambition to “level-up” the country, by spreading prosperity away from London and other wealthy parts of southern England. The main opposition Labour Party said Thursday that the revisions were a “betrayal of trust.”