HS2 costs rise as trains may be delayed until 2043 – Daily Business

HS2 has become a symbol of the country’s decline, said the minister

Taxpayers will be funding building work on the massively over-budget HS2 rail project for the best part of another two decades, MPs have been told.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the projected cost could now hit £103 billion – against an original estimate of £37.5bn – and it may not be fully completed until 2043.

Two-thirds of this increase is due to “past misunderstanding of the work required” and “issues within the control of HS2 Ltd, some of its suppliers and previous governments”. The remaining third is linked to inflation, she said.

The 140-mile line from London to Birmingham had been “gold-plated” with a focus on the “highest possible speeds” resulting in an “overspecced folly”.

Expressing her frustration, Ms Alexander said: “If it seems like an obscene increase in time and costs, it is because it is. If it seems like I’m angry, it is because I am.”

She said Labour had inherited a litany of failure, including soaring costs, and huge contracts handed out without price improvements.

“Instead of signalling the country’s ambition, HS2 became a symbol of this country’s decline,” she declared.

Ms Alexander said that a review of costs would see the maximum speed reduced by about 25mph to 199 mph, which will lower the cost by £2.5bn and see the project completed one year sooner.

The line was originally intended to reach Leeds and Manchester with trains due to begin running this year.

Ms Alexander said she now expected the first services to run between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham between May 2036 and October 2039. The section taking trains to Euston is expected to be ready between May 2040 and December 2043. 

The transport secretary said she was “angry on behalf of taxpayers and affected communities who have been swindled by the failure of successive governments.

“I am angry on behalf of thousands of rail and construction workers giving their all on this project who did not deserve to have their industry tarnished in this way, and angry on behalf of passengers who continue to wait for the new services and new opportunities they deserve.”

She said the project had turned into the “world’s most expensive slow-motion car crash” but committed the government to complete the project as cancelling it could cost almost as much while providing none of the benefits.

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