IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Visit www.constructionbriefing.com for your daily fix of all construction related news

The “failure” of the HS2 high-speed railway construction project is now a “reputational risk to the UK”. That is the warning from a group of Members of Parliament (MPs), who form the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in a new report.

An update from ministers at the end of 2024 put the budget of building HS2 from London to Birmingham at between £54 billion (US$70.1 billion) and £66 billion (US$85.7 billion) in 2019 prices, against an original budget of £37.5 billion (US$48.7 billion) in 2009 prices for the entire line – the northern leg of HS2 was scrapped in 2023.

The PAC urged the government to lay out to the public what value taxpayers can now expect from the project.

“Thirteen years since HS2 was given the go-ahead by government, it is not known what it will cost, what the final scope will be, when it will be completed, and what benefits it will deliver,” it said.

The Department for Transport and HS2 have promised a “fundamental reset” of the project but the PAC said it wanted to know more details of what is involved. “The report finds that neither DfT nor HS2 Ltd currently have the skills or capabilities to make a success of the programme,” it said.

The report also specifically highlighted London’s Euston Station, and HS2’s ‘bat tunnel’, as elements of concern.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the PAC, said, “Our Committee has not made recommendations in our report on delivering better outcomes for HS2’s future passengers. We are long past that point. It is time to deal with HS2 as what it is – a cautionary tale that should be studied by future Governments in how not to run a major project.”