HS2 could cost more than £100bn and may not open until 2039, says minister

HS2 could cost more than £100 billion and may not open until 2039, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced.

The Cabinet minister told the Commons she was “angry” about the “obscene increase in time and costs”, which she blamed on “the failures of successive Conservative governments”.

Ms Alexander said the expected cost of completing the high-speed railway was between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion (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 93 billion US dollars to date (£69 billion).

Constructing HS2 from London to Birmingham – plus the now abandoned onward legs to Leeds and Manchester – was initially estimated to cost £32.7 billion (in 2011 prices), but the budget has spiralled.

The previous cost range was £35 billion to £45 billion (in 2019 prices), set under the Conservatives.

Services were planned to launch in 2026, but the new target schedule is between May 2036 and October 2039.

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).

This could potentially save between £1 billion and £2.5 billion through factors such as reduced testing and earlier launch of services, Ms Alexander said.

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”.

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.

The high-speed trains will not run between Euston station in central London and Handsacre Junction in Staffordshire until between May 2040 and December 2043.

Handsacre Junction is where HS2 trains are planned to leave the dedicated high-speed tracks and merge onto the conventional West Coast Mainline.

Officials believe the work to enable trains to transfer from HS2 to mainline tracks is much more complicated than what happened to allow Elizabeth line trains to switch from tunnels under central London to the conventional railway.

The HS2 project will involve the West Coast Mainline being closed for engineering work.

Ms Alexander said the overall budget includes work at Euston – which has been paused since March 2023 – but the Government was still seeking a private investor for the site.

The revised cost and schedule for HS2 follows a comprehensive review by HS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Wild, who began his role in December 2024.

A major review published following the announcement found that “gold plating” HS2, including by focusing on achieving the “highest possible speeds”, is among the faults that contributed to the project’s woes.

Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the former national security adviser, criticised the “original sins” in the decision-making behind the scheme.

Labour ministers commissioned an internal review into whether scrapping the entire project would be better value for money than continuing with it.

This found that abandoning the scheme – which has already cost £44 billion – would require at least the same amount of funding as completing it.

Sam Gould, director of policy and external affairs at the Institution of Civil Engineers, said: “HS2’s reset should mark a turning point for the project.

“The key lesson is that major infrastructure projects must begin with a clear, agreed set of outcomes.”

Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association, which represents the rail supply chain, said it was “hugely important” that decisions on line speed and cost had been agreed.

He said: “Completion of the route must now be the priority.”