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HS2’s structures only ‘60% completed’

09 Jul 2025 2 minute read
HS2 workers gather to observe boring machine Mary Ann breaking through at Washwood Heath depot, 2 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre. Photo Jacob King/PA Wire

HS2’s physical structures should have been “largely completed” by now under the project’s initial timeline but only 60% of the work has been done, MPs were told.

Mark Wild, HS2 Ltd chief executive, said one of the main causes of the delays was starting construction work before designs were finalised and local planning consents were in place.

Notice to proceed was granted by the UK Government in April 2020.

Mr Wild blamed cost overruns on the awarding of contracts which meant the government held all the risk in case of problems, and failings of HS2 Ltd.

Inflation

He said the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in inflation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had also had an impact.

Phase One of HS2 between London and Birmingham was initially planned to open by the end of 2026.

This was later pushed back to between 2029 and 2033, but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said last month there was “no route” to meeting that timeframe.

In 2013, HS2 was estimated to cost £37.5 billion (at 2009 prices) for the entire planned network, including the now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

In June last year, HS2 Ltd assessed the cost for the line between London and Birmingham would be up to £66 billion.

Mr Wild, who was appointed late last year, told the Commons Transport Select Committee: “The construction of the civil engineering should have been largely completed by now.

“The reality is we’re about 60% complete.”

Unique challenge

He added: “The whole scheme, which includes, of course, the tracks, the overhead lines, the trains, the system integration, we’re about a third complete.”

Mr Wild described the project as “a unique challenge in this country”.

He went on: “A third of this route is actually underground or in cuttings.

“This is a huge, considerable, maybe the biggest civil engineering project ever undertaken in this country.

“The facts are, in the first two years of effort, we simply didn’t make enough progress.”


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Thomas
Thomas
17 days ago

It took the Victorians five years to build the first railway from London to Birmingham, when everything was dug by man and moved by horse. Meanwhile, construction of HS2 has been ongoing for five years already and, regardless of the benefit of two hundred year’s of progress and a whole heap of heavy machinery, it seems we have another five or more years to go. Even then, the train will terminate at Old Oak Common rather than Euston and it will be several more years before the line is extended to central London.

PeteCuthbert
PeteCuthbert
17 days ago
Reply to  Thomas

Exactly! I suspect that one of the problems is that Governments’ willingness to bail out the construction firms has helped them continue with cost over-runs with no penalties. Fixed price, fixed time scale projects might have sharpened up the management’s mind set a bit. If I have read my history correctly, I think that is what the Victorians did. (Yes they also paid terrible wages and offered dire working conditions but improved equipment and techniques mean that we should not do the same today.) The other question is why are they spending another £20+ billion for the 4.5 miles to… Read more »

Barry
Barry
17 days ago
Reply to  PeteCuthbert

The problem with not running it to Euston is that they lose the benefit of high-speed rail because the old services that do run to Euston are just as quick without ten minutes to change at Old Oak Common.

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