HS2: 16 years of high hopes, bruising reality and burgeoning costs

The Guardian

5 hours ago

Under detailed plans ministers set out more than a decade ago, HS2 wwas to cost £32.7bn and trains would be running by next year. Now that money has already been spent, the planned network has been cut back to one line, no track has been laid and no train has been built.
On Wednesday, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, announced that the London to Birmingham line would be delayed from the 2033 target, but did not set a new date. She called the project an 'appalling mess' but vowed to 'sort it out'.
As Labour attempts to draw a line under a 'litany of failure' and reset construction work on the high-speed line, here are the key moments in a story of high hopes and bruising reality.
2009
The Labour government announces plans for a high-speed railway running from London to northern England and sets up HS2 Ltd.
2010
The coalition government comes to power, backing greener transport, and reviews the scope of the line, including a possible spur to Heathrow.
January 2012
The transport secretary, Justine Greening, gives the official ministerial green light. HS2 will be a Y-shaped network from London to Birmingham, continuing to Manchester and Leeds. It will cost £32.7bn. Trains are expected to be running in 2026 and the full network operating by 2033.
June 2013
With tunnels added through the Chilterns – the result of much Conservative backbench pressure – the government resets the HS2 budget at £50bn.
January 2014
A new chief executive of HS2 Ltd is appointed, On a salary of £750,000, Simon Kirby becomes the UK's highest paid public servant by some distance.
March 2014
MPs overwhelmingly vote in favour of HS2, with only 41 votes against, and the hybrid bill starts to make its way through parliament.
November 2015
Costs are revised upwards again to £55.7bn.
June 2016
The National Audit Office says HS2 could be delayed by a year.
February 2017
After three years of detailed scrutiny, the HS2 bill becomes law, enabling preparatory work to start on the first phase between London and Birmingham. The new chief executive, Mark Thurston, who had worked on the 2012 Olympics, arrives in the spring.
July 2017
HS2 Ltd admits making £1.8m of unauthorised redundancy payments to staff, which it calls a 'serious error'.
2018
Demolition of streets, homes and businesses begins around Euston station in London.
July 2019
Boris Johnson is elected Tory leader and becomes prime minister after promising a review of HS2 on the campaign trail.
September 2019
A report by the HS2 Ltd chair, Allan Cook, warns that the railway may not be finished before 2040, and could cost £88bn.
January 2020
A National Audit Office report estimates that completing the full HS2 network will cost between £72bn and £98bn at 2019 prices.
February 2020
Johnson pledges to build HS2 despite the doubts raised in the Oakervee review he commissioned. The building of the planned north-east leg, however, will be 'reviewed', effectively putting it on ice.
May 2020
MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC) say HS2 has gone 'badly off course'.
September 2020
A ceremony marks the formal start of construction work after contracts to build the first phase of the line were signed during the Covid lockdown.
January 2021
Protesters dig a network of tunnels outside Euston as HS2 prepares to fell dozens of trees around the station.
November 2021
The government confirms that the eastern leg from Birmingham to Leeds will be scrapped.
March 2023
Construction of phase 2a – Birmingham to Crewe – will be delayed by two years, the government announces, and work at Euston is put on hold. The cost the HS2 terminal is put at £4.8bn, almost twice the initial budget. The first HS2 services will now start and stop at a new Old Oak Common, six miles from central London, until at least the 2040s.
June 2023
In the six-monthly HS2 update, ministers say services between Birmingham and Old Oak Common should begin between 2029 and 2033, with trains only reaching Manchester at some point between 2035 and 2041. Thurston resigns the following month.
October 2023
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, axes the remaining northern half of HS2 in a speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, to the fury of the rail industry and northern politicians. Sunak says the Euston HS2 station can only be built with private finance and blames HS2 Ltd for cost overruns.
October 2024
The new Labour government says it will fund the line into Euston. It vows to get a grip on the project costs and commissions a review into the delivery failings.
November 2024
The HS2 chair, Jon Thompson, reveals that a 'bat shed' to protect species in woodland near the line cost £100m.
December 2024
A new chief executive, Mark Wild, takes over HS2 Ltd, promising to review and reset the remaining construction work. A leaked report suggests the cost for the truncated line has risen to £80bn at current prices.
February 2025
Another scathing PAC report says HS2 has been a 'casebook example of how not to run a major project'.