{"id":456775,"date":"2026-05-19T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456775\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:45:09","slug":"hs2-railway-could-cost-up-to-102-7bn-and-may-not-open-until-2039-transport-secretary-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456775\/","title":{"rendered":"HS2: Railway could cost up to \u00a3102.7bn and may not open until 2039, transport secretary says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HS2 to be slower, more expensive and delayed furtherpublished at 15:42 BST<\/p>\n<p>15:42 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The HS2 High-Speed railway construction site at Old Oak Common in London, UK, on Thursday, May 29, 2025\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9b17780b-1b8e-436d-9d6f-eb0a3892291d.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">HS2 trains are expected to start operating from London&#8217;s Old Oak Common by 2039 at the latest, according to new estimates<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has just announced the delay, increased cost and reduced speed of the HS2 high speed rail project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Here are they key takeaways: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cost <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is now estimated that it will cost between \u00a387.7bn and \u00a3102.7bn to complete the high speed rail line. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When the project was approved in 2012, the cost estimate for the entire project, including the since-cancelled Manchester and Leeds legs, was \u00a332.7bn &#8211; which works out to about \u00a349.2bn in today&#8217;s money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speed<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">High Speed 2 is getting a little bit slower, with the trans now reaching maximum of 199mph (320 km\/h), down from the previously planned 224 mph (360 km\/h).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For reference, most high-speed trains in the UK currently run at around 125 mph (200 km\/h) , while HS1 &#8211; the Channel Tunnel Rail Link &#8211; reaches speeds of up to 186 mph (300 km\/h).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Timeframe <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">HS2 has one again been delayed, with trains expected to start running between Birmingham and west London&#8217;s Old Oak Common between 2036 and 2039.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trains are expected to run to London&#8217;s Euston at some point between May 2040 and December 2043.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HS2 to be slower, more expensive and delayed furtherpublished at 15:42 BST 15:42 BST Image source, Getty ImagesImage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-456775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}