Timeline: How HS2 became a £100bn trainwreck for government

The government said on Tuesday that the high speed rail link will not be ready for 2033, following a “litany of failure” that has driven up costs by £37bn.

Since being conceived in the late 2000s, High Speed Two has been beset by numerous setbacks, scalebacks, and has gone over budget multiple times.

The train link, now only set to run between London and Birmingham - and not further north, as originally planned- might still be a decade away from being realised.

Reports in October had suggested that Labour wanted the line to continue to the Midlands hub of Crewe, although Ms Alexander effectively ruled this out.

“This Government will get the job done between Birmingham and London,” she told the Commons on Wednesday.

“We won’t reinstate cancelled sections we can’t afford, but we will do the hard but necessary work to rebuild public trust.”

“It’s an appalling mess, but it’s one we will sort out,” Ms Alexander added. “We need to set targets which we can confidently deliver, that the public can trust, and that will take time.

“But rest assured, where there are inefficiencies, we will root them out.”

Ms Alexander said that an interim report by Mark Wild, the chief executive of HS2 Ltd since last year, showed “mismanagement of the project under previous governments”.

Some progress was shown in May when the first platform for HS2 was revealed at Old Oak Common station in west London.

However, Ms Alexander has been realistic about the situation and has addressed the problems faced so far, which she hopes will be addressed and those responsible held to account.

She told the Commons: “Quite simply, there have been too many dark corners for failure to hide in. The ministerial taskforce set up to provide oversight of HS2 had inconsistent attendance from key ministers, including the then-transport secretary and the then-chief secretary to the Treasury.”

Here is how the HS2 project has come together and unravelled over the years.