{"id":592560,"date":"2026-05-19T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592560\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:00:08","slug":"hs2-bill-could-rise-to-102bn-with-first-trains-delayed-until-2039-government-admits-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592560\/","title":{"rendered":"HS2 bill could rise to \u00a3102bn with first trains delayed until 2039, government admits | Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The HS2<\/a> high-speed railway will now cost up to \u00a3102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039, the government has admitted \u2013 \u00a370bn more and 13 years later than originally promised.<\/p>\n

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander<\/a>, said that the truncated railway would not be entirely completed until as late as 2043.<\/p>\n

The figure is the first official estimate of HS2\u2019s budget in 2026 prices. Alexander said the total cost would range between \u00a387.7bn and \u00a3102.7bn, with only a third of the rise owing to inflation.<\/p>\n

The first trains between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street will now run between 2036 and 2039, with the full railway running from London Euston to join the West Coast main line in Staffordshire scheduled to be completed between 2040 and 2043.<\/p>\n

Alexander said that the forecasts were now \u201cbuilt on solid foundations with credible estimates as ranges\u201d, after a 15-month review conducted by HS2 Ltd\u2019s chief executive Mark Wild on taking up the post.<\/p>\n

She blamed the Conservative government for standing by and watching \u201cthe world\u2019s most expensive slow-motion car crash\u201d, saying that Labour had inherited a \u201clitany of failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

While inflation played a part, Alexander said two-thirds of the budget increase was due to works being missed from the scope of the original plans, under-estimates and inefficient delivery.<\/p>\n

The transport secretary added: \u201cI can confirm that the previous government spent most of HS2\u2019s budget without laying a single mile of track. That is the shocking legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIf it seems like an obscene increase in times and costs, that is because it is. And if it seems like I\u2019m angry, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The HS2 project was first approved in January 2012 with a \u00a332.7bn budget to build a Y-shaped high-speed track as far as Manchester and Leeds, and scheduled to be in operation by 2026. Photograph: HS2\/PA<\/p>\n

She said that the government had considered cancelling the entire project, but that \u201cit could cost almost as much to cancel the line as finish it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alexander promised: \u201cWe will deliver HS2 to completion.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she said that trains would be operated at lower speeds, to save about \u00a32.5bn, reducing the top speed<\/a> from about 225 mph to about nearly 200 mph (360km\/h to 320km\/h) , in line with most international standards. The original design, she said, had been \u201ca massively overspecced folly \u2026 If we were a country the size of China I could understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change reduces the cost and time needed for testing new trains, as well as cutting the specifications of the control and signalling system. Plans to build the line with automatic train operation \u2013 a system normally only used on the busiest metropolitan rail lines with high-frequency services \u2013 are expected to be dropped.<\/p>\n

She said that HS2 Ltd\u2019s boss Wild and the company\u2019s chair, Mark Brown, \u201chave an almost impossible task on their hands\u201d to turn the project around, but would be managing contracts properly with improved oversight.<\/p>\n

Wild said: \u201cI recognise this will be unwelcome news for local communities and taxpayers, and I share in their disappointment that it will take longer and cost more to bring HS2 into service.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he added: \u201cResetting HS2 was the only way to regain control of the project. We have turned a corner in the last 12 months with significantly improved levels of productivity, helping us to deliver major milestones ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter journeys, more capacity on the network, and economic growth are all vital to the country\u2019s future prosperity, and that\u2019s exactly what we will deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project was first approved by the coalition government in January 2012 with a \u00a332.7bn budget to build a Y-shaped high-speed track<\/a> as far as Manchester and Leeds, and scheduled to be in operation by 2026. That figure excluded rolling stock, which is now included in the revised budget.<\/p>\n

High-speed services will run on to Manchester and Scotland, at slower speeds using conventional lines, once the HS2 line is connected to the main line at Handsacre in the early 2040s.<\/p>\n

The range in the new \u00a387.7-102.7bn budget, which excludes future inflation, is partly due to continued uncertainty over the size and shape of London Euston, which will be need to be rebuilt to accommodate high-speed trains running north of Birmingham. The government hopes to partly privately finance the Euston works.<\/p>\n

Spending on HS2 is guaranteed until 2029-30 under the spending review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HS2 high-speed railway will now cost up to \u00a3102.7bn and trains will not start running between London…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-592560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}