Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has delivered a major update on the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, revealing that the scandal-hit scheme may not be completed for another 17 years. The cost of finishing the project is now expected to range between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion, with the first services potentially not starting until 2039 and full completion delayed until 2043.
New Timetable and Cost Estimates
In a statement to the House of Commons, Alexander outlined the revised timeline: first services from Old Oak Common to Birmingham Curzon Street are now anticipated between May 2036 and October 2039. The full HS2 scheme connecting Euston to Handsacre junction is expected to be delivered between May 2040 and December 2043. The original plan had the first phase launching in 2026.
The Transport Secretary criticised the previous Conservative government for a "litany of failure" that led to the delays. She revealed that previous administrations "spent most of HS2's budget without laying a single metre of its track."
Speed Reduction to Save Costs
Alexander also announced that HS2 trains will operate at a maximum speed of 320 km/h, down from the originally planned 360 km/h. She branded the pursuit of record speeds a Tory "vanity project," noting that the UK is not the size of China and does not require trains that fast. The reduced speed aligns HS2 with other high-speed networks like HS1, Japan's Shinkansen, and France's TGV. Most high-speed trains in the UK currently run at up to 200 km/h.
"Passengers just want reliable trains that turn up when they're supposed to. More services and more seats. They want a common sense approach that gets them the railway they deserve, not a vanity project with trains so fast that proper testing couldn't be done until track and railway systems were complete," Alexander told MPs.
Review Criticises Changing Objectives
The update accompanied a major review of HS2 failings by former National Security Advisor Sir Stephen Lovegrove. The report criticises the damage caused by "changing objectives and political priorities" over the years, as well as the relentless focus on achieving the highest possible speeds. This led to "bespoke and highly engineered design," which Alexander described as "a massively overspent folly."
Ruth Cadbury, chair of the transport select committee, commented: "Everyone would like to see a new target date but it has to be one that is realistic and deliverable. I think there's a general agreement that trying to be the fastest high-speed rail in the world was overly ambitious and at significant cost and isn't particularly necessary in a country as small as the UK." She added that the Lovegrove report aims to help learn "lessons not just on HS2 but also other infrastructure projects."
Soaring Budget and Abandonment Considerations
The high-speed line from London to Birmingham, along with the now-abandoned legs to Leeds and Manchester, was initially estimated to cost £32.7 billion (in 2011 prices). By January 2024, HS2 Ltd's then-executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson estimated the cost of building the line between London and Birmingham had reached as much as £66.6 billion (in prices at that time).
According to the Financial Times, Labour ministers commissioned an internal review to assess whether scrapping the entire project would offer better value for money than continuing. The review concluded that abandoning the scheme, which has already cost an estimated £40 billion, would cost at least as much as completing it.
HS2 Ltd's Mark Wild warned the Department for Transport that cancelling a programme of HS2's scale is "unprecedented in the Western world." In a letter, he stated: "Our collective assessment of the current legal position is that land should be fully remediated, which would include demolishing all built assets, and returning land to the same condition as prior to construction to allow it to be potentially sold back to its original owners where appropriate." He added: "There is little evidence that removing these assets would cost much less than creating them."
