New HS2 farce as £32bn spent – but still not a single track laid
New HS2 farce as £32bn spent – but still not a single track laid
Posted by theipaper
New HS2 farce as £32bn spent – but still not a single track laid
New HS2 farce as £32bn spent – but still not a single track laid
Posted by theipaper
20 comments
[HS2](https://inews.co.uk/topic/hs2?srsltid=AfmBOoq7Aq_h8fx9VP-LA4MC6GOS3atpv-VW-qXjTyAOxRXvme7-ooc7&ico=in-line_link) will be further delayed and ultimately cost more than £100bn, critics have claimed, after it emerged only a third of the preparatory work needed for the line is complete.
Just 15 of the 310 structures needed for the high-speed railway line – for viaducts, bridges, cuttings and embankments – are finished, according to HS2’s latest update, despite £32bn having been spent on construction in five years.
While costs have ballooned, not a single bit of rail track has yet been laid.
A further 279 structures are “in progress” but HS2 boss Mark Wild, who took on the job last December, has admitted that the civil engineering phase of the project is “quite behind”.
He has been tasked by the Government with carrying out a “reset” of HS2 after years of delays and allegations of mismanagement.
Critics say [HS2’s costs remain “out of control” ](https://inews.co.uk/news/hs2-contractors-urge-ministers-resurrect-line-crewe-3561477?ico=in-line_link)and that the opening is likely to be delayed well beyond the intended target of between 2029 and 2033 – a deadline already significantly pushed back from the initial opening date of 2026.
Speaking at the High Speed Rail Group’s annual conference this month, Mr Wild said the “civils” phase of HS2 – the infrastructure to run it – should be 70 to 80 per cent complete by now, but just a third of the work has actually been done.
Engineers have struggled to maintain momentum because the project has become “disconnected from the reality of the site works”, he said.
# ‘We haven’t built any railway’
Quantity surveyor and railway consultant Michael Byng, who has provided his services on HS2, said he believes the total cost of Phase One between Birmingham and London will be £107bn.
“We haven’t ordered any track yet, we haven’t ordered any signal, any overhead lines, we haven’t built any railway whatsoever, add the fact it doesn’t go anywhere near Euston and there’s no interchange at Old Oak Common, we haven’t ordered a power supply from the National Grid yet… it’s a shambles,” he said.
It comes as HS2 Ltd awaits to hear if it will be allocated new longer-term funding in the Government’s [spending review next month](https://inews.co.uk/news/threat-reform-hangs-over-labours-crunch-decision-hs2-3682264?ico=in-line_link).
Sunak was absolutely right to cancel this money pit
Only in the United Kingdom can a train line from London to Birmingham cost upward of £107bn.
The current route by train is 102 miles, if this is similar to HS2 then the cost per mile will end up circa. £1bn per mile.
This folly needs to be stopped now, before more taxpayer money is wasted.
It would be much cheaper to build multiple super-carriers and just sail around the country.
Just putting this into perspective.
Only the UK can fuck something up this bad 😂
The UK can’t do huge projects without years of delays and spiralling costs. It’s just how we do it.
Maybe they should have been less ambitious? Perhaps developing portions of the existing track bit by bit or something like that. Rather than this sort of ‘mega’ project. I have no idea if that was feasible but there’s gotta be some lessons from this.
Insane that the country that invented the railway is so shit at building it
This was always a cash grab and jobs for the boys. was never going to be completed to the original spec, London (specifically the ‘elite’, property owner and investors) doesn’t want to be connected to the rest of the UK, it would de-value the area and there’s so much money still to be made. Sorry to say but hs2 is an absolute money pit and anything we do get will be underwhelming at best.
Brought to you by a country with a proud history of railways.
At what point does this become a national scandal?
High-speed rail would be beneficial if it was running to Newcastle or Edinburgh.
But £100b+ to save 40 minutes from Brum to London or 65 minutes from Manchester at the same time we’re cutting disability benefits. Jesus
Where has all that tax payers money gone?
It will eventually come out that this was the biggest grift in national history
“Ms Alexander said she would be restoring “ministerial oversight” to the project”
Leaving aside the bewildering idea that there was not previous ministerial oversight, this exact thing was declared back in October by the then Transport Secretary Louise Haigh
https://www.theplanner.co.uk/2024/10/21/ministerial-oversight-reinstated-hs2
🤯
Didn’t Japan build the first bullet train line in way less time and money than this?
I do love that while this project is costing billions upon billions and we still have nothing much to show for it. Our entire road network is falling apart and needs drastic investment.
It’s not even smaller/back roads falling apart now. The absolute state of the motorways and dual carriageways here is an absolute joke compared to Europe.
A couple of years ago China built over 1000 miles of track in a single 12 month period. A lot of it through mountainous regions.
We can’t do barely a tenth of that in 15 years mostly through open fields.
Ffs, cut our losses and cancel it.
Recoup what we can by selling the equipment and land bought.
This is called embezzlement
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