Birmingham provides an example of just how uplifting a major infrastructure improvement can be for a city with the opening of the £680 million rebuilt New Street station.
It is a fine centrepiece for the massive rebuilding of the city centre because it provides a focus for that process and provides further retailing.
There is certainly a lot of new space being built in the city, a lot of which is Grade A offices, providing real scope for major companies to relocate there.
While it may be years before it is completed, what will be the impact of HS2? It means that Birmingham has a lot to offer investors and companies and its closeness to London may work in its favour rather than be a hindrance.
This competition between regional cities, which is being fostered by the government through plans for elected mayors and increased executive powers together with improved transport links (note the words used when the recent decisions were made to electrify lines after a hiatus) is a positive change for the whole country.
If governments maintain the effort to widen the focus of growth and economic activity away from London then the whole of the UK will benefit. In fact there is little choice because the unbalancing to London and the south east has almost certainly gone too far.