I was unaware of this until I recently discovered Gareth Dennis on twitter, who is doing a fantastic job of making up for HS2 ltd's appallingly lacking public engagement "strategy".
It initially doubles capacity and ultimately triples it https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... (figure 4.2, p76)
What would "proper connection to Europe" have looked like to you? HS2 ends in London where eurostar begins. If HS2 terminated in say, Milton Keynes, I'd wholeheartedly agree with you.
> Linking it to a program of speed improvements on connecting commuter rail would have been a cheaper vote winner
Do you have any evidence for this? Any publicly available report showing even outline calculations? HS2 has always had cross party support.
> before covid19 made public transit irrelevant
In one way or another, the threat of covid will eventually pass. We'll still need public transport when it does.
By "infrastructure" I guess they mean improvements to intercity rail connections, namely the high speed rail. I don't see those as localized improvements. Moreover they seem geared to decreasing commute times in/out of london (and a couple other of the largest cities). The net result is to allow rich londoners to live and commute from further afield. That isn't a move away from "peak capital", it's doubling down on that capital by further extending its influence, expanding the hinterlands on which it relies.