I’ve lived both, car centric US/Canada and London. At first public transport seems great but over time the realization sets in about how uncomfortable it is (no seat warmers, cleanliness, having your face in people’s armpits) and inconvenient it is (not door to door) and that wouldn’t be so bad but then the unreliability (signal issues) and expense of the tickets and tax subsidies makes it a bad deal. It should exist as an option, I’m glad it does so I can have less traffic on the roads, but it’s overrated. HS2 in the article is this expensive just to build, imagine the maintenance costs for the next century. Whether you use it or not, residents will have to pay for it.