‘Like running Ferraris on dirt roads’: Inside the battle to save HS2

‘Like running Ferraris on dirt roads’: Inside the battle to save HS2



Posted by theipaper

2 comments

  1. Standing at the bottom of a man-made cliff face of reinforced concrete, 20m below ground, you can see the first cuts of a 4.5 mile tunnel that will run through thick London clay towards Euston.

    After nearly 18 months of dithering and delay, [HS2](https://inews.co.uk/topic/hs2?srsltid=AfmBOoqY4FABw9l9aO61uTz9ZCq0JGUJpH4dzbT9XKsg_hRnx6DHRSx4&ico=in-line_link) has finally been given the green light to start tunnelling from Old Oak Common in West London to the originally intended terminus in the centre of the capital.

    The move, announced by [Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her autumn Budget](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-trains-run-euston-doubts-station-revamp-3354004?ico=in-line_link), puts to bed the[ uncertainty that has surrounded the high-speed line](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-state-of-the-art-worst-all-worlds-3260639?srsltid=AfmBOoqaUYR8i0f4epqmF9CD-kyYHxuhLUoAdnE7qcNymAVulhGRBcR4&ico=in-line_link) ever since former prime minister Rishi Sunak announced in 2023 that the rail scheme would not run beyond Birmingham to Manchester and the plan to terminate it in Euston was on hold.

    “There’s no doubt that 2025 is the year that HS2 gets back on track,” Huw Edwards, stations delivery director at HS2 Ltd, told *The i Paper* from the mouth of one of the yawning tunnels.

    While the arm’s length delivery body has yet to be told the full size and shape of the budget it will receive to dig the tunnels to Euston, it is expected that work will begin in 2025 with a completion date set for 18 months later.

    # Political hand-wringing

    There is frustration within the industry that crucial time was lost due to the political handwringing over the cost of the high-speed railway, with delay itself further pushing up the cost due to inflation.

    But above all there is a sense of disappointment that the loss of cross-party consensus has damaged the overarching aim of delivering what is the biggest infrastructure in western Europe and the benefits that the railway line will bring in terms of economic growth.

    Asked about the effects of the past 18 months of political mudslinging and negative headlines around HS2, Edwards said: “It has brought its challenges. We thought there was cross party support across those 10, 12, 14, years but that didn’t seem to be that case.

    He added that the aim now is to try and ram home the tangible benefits that delivering such a major piece of infrastructure will bring to people.

    “I have worked on nine major rail projects over 34 years – be it Docklands Light Railway, the Jubilee line, HS1, Crossrail – and they all have this moment where people can’t actually see what we can see,” he said.

Comments are closed.