Five ways HS2 has wasted money as government announces further delays

ITV News

6 hours ago

It will be at least another ten years until we will be able to catch an HS2 train from Birmingham to London, with the line now not expected to be complete until 2035 - and coming in billions of pounds over budget.
More than 44 miles of tunnels have now been completed, with research estimating the project could create 30,000 new jobs in the West Midlands.
HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then onto Manchester and Leeds, but the project has been severely curtailed by spiralling costs, despite being scaled back.
In Parliament on Wednesday, 18 June, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said there is 'no reasonable way to deliver' the high-speed railway on schedule and within budget.
She said she will accept all recommendations from a review by James Stewart into how HS2 has been managed up until now.
In a statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State condemned the 'litany of failure' of HS2, citing spiralling costs, ineffective oversight and broken promises.
The review states: "There is no single explanation for the failings of the HS2 Programme.
"External disruptors (Brexit, the war in Ukraine, Covid-19 and a high inflationary period) have undoubtedly had an impact, but fundamentally a combination of the Government, DfT as Sponsor and Shareholder, HS2 Ltd as the delivery entity, and the private sector supply chain have failed to be able to deliver a project of the original scale and size of HS2."
So, what are some of the main failings of the project? Here at ITV News Central we have pulled together a list.
1. Cancelled Phase 2
The original route was set to run from London to Birmingham, with two separate legs running from the Midlands to Leeds,and Manchester.
Due to soaring costs, in 2021, Boris Johnson announced the scrapping of the Leeds leg, with Rishi Sunak cancelling the leg to Manchester in 2023.
The cost of scrapping phase 2 works is estimated at around £2bn.
2. Delayed completion of Phase 1
As the opening of Phase 1 to Birmingham is pushed back further and further, costs continue to soar.
The review highlights that without action; "Phase 1 alone risks becoming one of the most expensive railway lines in the world - with costs ballooning by £37 billion".
When the project was first drawn up in 2009, the estimated cost for the entire project, including Phase 1 and 2, was £37.5bn. The most recent figures estimate it will cost between £49bn and £56.6bn, despite the second phase being cancelled.
3. Contractors
The review states that; " HS2 Ltd has lacked the capability to deal with the size and complexity of the HS2 Programme."
It goes on to say that the model chosen for the project was wrong, but there was a "failure to change course when problems arose."
Extra costs are also down to problems with some of the building work.
In November last year, issued were found on some of the bridges built on the line between London and Birmingham.
Steel firm Severfield identified welding problems on a number of its structures, including nine bridges on the HS2 line, with repair work costing more than £20m to fix.
At the time, HS2 said: 'We have identified a number of welding defects related to steel fabrication work undertaken by one of our suppliers.
'This will not impact on the safety or quality of the operational railway which is being designed to the highest standards.'
In total more than 500 bridges are being built along the route from London to Curzon Street in Birmingham.
4. Desire to build the best
HS2 was a project sold on speed.
The promise was trains travelling between London and Birmingham at speeds of up to 225mph. This meant a straight line was required to be built between the two cities to ensure speed of trains.
The route was to go through the Chilterns AONB, with extensive tunnels required to keep trains out of sight and ensure the natural area was protected.
The scope of the plans kept changing, driving up costs. Pressure from protestors and constituents left MPs voting to increase the tunnel length through the Chilterns, in turn costing more money.
The review found many key decisions have been driven by schedule rather than cost, stating: "Pressure from politicians to maintain momentum, fear of HS2 being cancelled, and the belief that costs will increase as a result of delay have featured strongly."
5. Pace of decision making
Since it was initially approved in 2012, the HS2 project has been through Brexit, a global pandemic and seven different Prime Ministers.
The James Stewart review highlights the pace of decision making as one of the main disruptors for the project, with no buffer in place for politics.
It says: "Any project of this size and scale delivered across multiple decades is going to be impacted by politics.
"When I looked at comparator projects – Tideway, Sizewell C, even Crossrail – there was a buffer to the politics, either with external shareholders, regulators or joint sponsors.
"The HS2 Programme has had no such buffers and has been subject to evolving political aims, which pushed forward on the schedule before there was sufficient design maturity and caused progressive removals of scope."
The review found trust between stakeholders needs to be restored as the project moves forward.
It says: "The significant and consistent cost overruns that have been a feature of the project have undermined trust in HS2."
Following the publishing of the review, the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: "This must be a line in the sand. This government is delivering HS2 from Birmingham to London after years of mismanagement, flawed reporting and ineffective oversight.
"Mark Wild and Mike Brown were part of the team, with me, that turned Crossrail into the Elizabeth Line – we have done it before, we will do it again.
"Passengers and taxpayers deserve new railways the country can be proud of and the work to get HS2 back on track is firmly underway. "
The Transport Secretary confirmed Mike Brown will be taking over as HS2 Ltd Chair, working alongside CEO Mark Wild to deliver a programme reset, including reviewing the costs and schedule, renegotiating HS2's large construction contracts, and reviewing HS2 Ltd's skills and structure.
The Transport Secretary has asked Mark Wild to be ready to provide an update on revised costs and delivery timescales at the end of the year.