HS2 could cost more than £100m and trains may not run to Euston until 2043
HS2 will be more expensive than the Artemis II mission to send four astronauts to the Moon, which is estimated to have cost £69bn.
HS2 could cost more than £100bn and trains may not run from Euston until 2043, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced.
The Cabinet minister told the House of Commons she was “angry” about the “obscene increase in time and costs”, which she blamed on “the failures of successive Conservative governments”.
She said the expected cost of completing the high-speed railway was between £87.7bn and £102.7bn (in 2025 prices).
That means it will be more expensive than the Artemis II mission to send four astronauts to the Moon, which is estimated to have cost £69bn.
HS2 was originally planned to run onwards to Manchester and Leeds to solve capacity problems for rail in the North, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives in power because of spiralling costs.
In 2021 Boris Johnson scrapped the Leeds leg and in 2023 Rishi Sunak axed the Manchester segment, with mayors describing it as a “betrayal of the North”.
Constructing HS2 from London to Birmingham – plus the now abandoned onward legs to Leeds and Manchester – was initially estimated to cost £32.7bn (in 2011 prices), but the budget has spiralled.
Services were planned to launch in 2026, but the new target schedule is between May 2036 and October 2039 for services from Old Oak Common in north west London to Birmingham Curzon Street.
Meanwhile, trains will not run from London Euston to Handsacre Junction, in the West Midlands, which allows it to connect up to the West Coast Main Line, from May 2040 to December 2043.
Ms Alexander also announced that HS2 trains will run slower than planned to save money.
She said the maximum speed of services will be 320km/h (199mph), down from the original design of 360km/h (224mph).
She branded the previous plans a “massively over-specced folly, with the prospect of the fastest trains anywhere in the world tickling the fancy of Conservative ministers”.
Services will still be among “the fastest trains in Europe” despite the top speed being cut, she told MPs.
Ms Alexander said the cost increase is mostly because of “past misunderstanding of the work required, underestimation and inefficiency, issues within the control of HS2 Ltd, some of its suppliers, and previous governments”.
Both the Public Accounts Committee and Transport Committee of MPs are holding investigations into the failures of HS2.
Mr Wild is expected to give evidence to MPs tomorrow, along with Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy and senior Department for Transport official Dean Creamer.