Thirteen years on, more to wait – and pay – before HS2 is completedpublished at 16:50 BST
16:50 BST
Katy Austin
Transport correspondent
Image source, Getty Images
Visit any of the vast tunnels, viaducts, or bridges taking shape along the HS2 route, and you will probably be impressed. The engineering achievements are not in doubt.
But the scheme as a whole has come to be seen as an example of how not to do a major infrastructure project. Costs have gone up, the schedule has slipped.
And now, following a “reset” of the project, we’ve had the revelation that the cost of HS2 could exceed £100bn, in 2025 prices.
Remember, that’s the price tag for a much shorter railway than originally planned. The Leeds and Manchester branches were scrapped a few years ago.
Reasons for things going wrong have been identified by successive government-commissioned reviews, the latest of which was published today alongside the transport secretary’s update. For example, a focus on the highest possible speeds, changing objectives and political priorities, and contracts being awarded before the design was mature enough. Plus, costs and risk being badly underestimated.
There’s further delay too. Passengers won’t ride the first trains for at least another decade. They won’t travel all the way to Euston in central London, which is already a building site and has no current design plan, for at least another 14 years.
The transport secretary laid the blame for past failures at the feet of previous governments. But she insisted the new leadership team was turning things around.
HS2’s won’t be cancelled, as that would cost almost as much as finishing it – with none of the benefits. But passengers face a long wait before they see those benefits.