Even in the South East, the UK isn’t that densely populated — apparently golf courses take up more space than housing (excluding roads)

HS2 benefits pretty my everyone along it’s route path through increases local services as capacity is released from the current lines

Midland Connect have a good overview of what it enables them to do – https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/media/1602/hs2-released-capac...

There’s also a document somewhere that covers how HS2 increases short distance services from Euston somewhere

Local rail transport should benefit hugely from HS2