{"id":592747,"date":"2026-05-19T16:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592747\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:16:11","slug":"hs2-railway-could-cost-up-to-102-7bn-and-may-not-open-until-2039-transport-secretary-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592747\/","title":{"rendered":"HS2: Railway could cost up to \u00a3102.7bn and may not open until 2039, transport secretary says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Thirteen years on, more to wait &#8211; and pay &#8211; before HS2 is completedpublished at 16:50 BST<\/p>\n<p>16:50 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1l98ssq-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/aca0db4a-ff5a-4875-8570-83ac3e616556.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Katy Austin<br \/>Transport correspondent<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"An aerial view of the HS2 Curzon Viaduct 2 standing in the landscape, ready to be jacked into position when completed\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82dd8ff3-1d38-4c14-b17f-2d1a7c00d256.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And now, following a \u201creset\u201d of the project, we\u2019ve had the revelation that the cost of HS2 could exceed \u00a3100bn, in 2025 prices. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Remember, that\u2019s the price tag for a much shorter railway than originally planned. The Leeds and Manchester branches were scrapped a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Reasons for things going wrong have been identified by successive government-commissioned reviews, the latest of which was published today alongside the transport secretary\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There\u2019s further delay too. Passengers won\u2019t ride the first trains for at least another decade. They won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">HS2\u2019s won\u2019t be cancelled, as that would cost almost as much as finishing it &#8211; with none of the benefits. But passengers face a long wait before they see those benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirteen years on, more to wait &#8211; and pay &#8211; before HS2 is completedpublished at 16:50 BST 16:50&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-592747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592747","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=592747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}