THE HS2 high-speed rail is nothing more than a ‘vanity project’ that offers ‘abysmal value for money’, a campaigner has claimed.

On Monday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne confirmed the high speed rail link connecting Crewe to Birmingham will open in 2027, six years ahead of schedule.

However, Joe Rukin, Stop HS2 campaign manager, said the ‘fast-tracking’ of the route to Crewe will have a negative to the north of England.

Mr Rukin also slammed the cost of the project, which the government says it will cost £42.6 billion to build, plus £7.5 billion for the trains.

He said: “HS2 is abysmal value for money, and the increasingly dogmatic support for this white elephant and its’ spiralling costs is completely unfathomable.

“The costs of HS2 went up 11 per cent in the Autumn Statement and with trains not due to run for over another decade, who knows where the cost of this vanity project will end up and what else will have to be cut to pay for it?”

Mr Osborne claimed the announcement was a ‘massive step in the right direction for the Northern Powerhouse’.

The new route has been widely touted as a significant catalyst for driving growth and rebalancing regional economies across the country, though Mr Rukin believes this is not the case.

He said: “A responsible chancellor would be asking serious questions about whether HS2 is really worth it, not chucking more money at a boondoggle, which would only benefit the richest in society.

“This is simply rewarding chronic mismanagement, and signalling that there is no need for budgetary control when it comes to HS2.”

Penny Gaines, chairman of the campaign group, Stop HS2, claims HS2 is a ‘white elephant’ and called on the government to scrap the project altogether.

She said: “The government should make the decision to cancel HS2. There are far better uses for the money, which will have far better long and short term results."