HS2: World's 'most expensive' high-speed rail line to be slower and cost more

A high-speed train line between London and Birmingham will be more expensive, take longer to make and go slower than previously announced.

The HS2 project will cost between £87.7bn and £102.7bn (in 2025 prices), with the first train services not starting until at least May 2036 and possibly not until October 2039, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Commons on Tuesday.

The project was said to be the most expensive high-speed rail line in the world, according to researchers at the Transit Costs Project.

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The high-speed trains will also be slower than anticipated, travelling at 320kph (199mph) rather than 360kph (224mph) as planned.

This could potentially save between £1bn and £2.5bn, Ms Alexander said.

Full HS2 services from Euston to Handsacre junction, north of Birmingham, will not begin until May 2040 at the earliest and potentially as late as December 2043, said the secretary of state.

HS2 tracks will begin being laid in 2029, and services between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham's Curzon Street station are expected to start running between May 2036 and October 2039.

It's just the latest update to a project which has been beset by delays, cost increases and revisions.

A section of the line, due to bring the project to Manchester, had been cancelled by the Tory government.

At points in time, previous governments were not sure how much the project would cost but an estimate of between £54bn-£66bn was given by HS2 Ltd at a board meeting in 2024.

Services were intended to operate at some point between 2029 and 2033 under previous expectations.

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In a lengthy statement criticising previous governments' handling of the scheme, Ms Alexander said Labour have inherited a "litany of failure", with billions of pounds "sunk" into a section that was "abruptly cancelled".

"Instead of signalling the country's ambition, HS2 became a symbol of this country's decline," she added.

"After more than five years of construction and over £40bn spent, the country was no closer to having an operational HS2 railway than when construction first began."

Why?

Cost overruns were mostly attributed to a mix of "past misunderstanding of the work required", "underestimation and inefficiency" and "issues within the control of HS2 Ltd, some of its suppliers", Ms Alexander said.

A third of the increase was blamed on inflation, "which was not factored into previous cost estimates regularly enough", she added.

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