HS2 between London and Birmingham costing as much as £66bn shows how opportunity to build it in full was missed

HS2 Ltd executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson says the estimated cost of building HS2 between London and Birmingham has soared to as much as £66.6bn. To put this in context, in 2013 HS2 was estimated to cost £37.5bn for the entire planned network, including now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

There are serious questions that need answering about the spiralling costs. It can’t simply be pinned on inflation. Sir Jon says the original estimate was poor for the project.

But this was also exacerbated by the constant tinkering following a decade of political upheaval.

This brings into focus the appetite of this and previous governments to deliver this major public infrastructure project. When HS2 was initially greenlit, there were many who called for work to start in the North and work its way down. This was driven by the fear that came to pass, that the North would be left high and dry should HS2 go off the rails.

Spiralling costs aren’t to say that the project should never have been given the go ahead or indeed delivered in full. HS2 hasn’t been about slightly faster trains from the North to London. Rather it has been a capacity issue.

As Sir Jon also told the Transport Select Committee, the decision not to extend HS2 north of Birmingham could lead to a reduction in seat capacity for services between London and Manchester compared with today.