News Analysis: Britain delays second high-speed railway construction, again

by Xinhua writers Zheng Bofei, Larry Neild
LONDON, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Britons won't be boarding their second high-speed railway -- High Speed 2 (HS2) -- before the 2030s, as the government confirmed on Wednesday that construction has been delayed until at least 2033. The delay stems from years of mismanagement and escalating costs, spanning from the tenure of the Conservative government to the current Labour administration.
Sixteen years after HS2 was first proposed, Britain has yet to lay a single track for its long-planned rail line -- more than two decades after the country launched its first high-speed railway, HS1, which links London with the Channel Tunnel. The HS2 project was initially expected to cost 33 billion pounds (44.22 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012 and open by 2026.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said that based on an interim report conducted by HS2 chief executive Mark Wild, "I see no route by which trains can be running by 2033 as planned."
The report concluded that there was "no single root cause" behind the rising costs and delays at HS2 Ltd, but rather "an accumulation of issues over time."
UNREALISTIC PLANNING
When HS2 was first envisioned, the rail line was planned to connect London to Manchester and Leeds, linking major cities such as Birmingham as part of a broader route to the north of England. However, under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government, the plan was scaled back to only include the section from London to Birmingham.
According to The Guardian, when the Department for Transport (DfT) set the Phase One budget in 2013, only a "basic design" existed. Poorly suited to early-stage planning, the proposal lacked sufficient contingency provisions. As a result, the projected cost soared to 55.7 billion pounds by 2015.
One early miscalculation was the decision to route HS2 through the Chiltern Hills. Bowing to political pressure from local interests, the government added expensive tunnel segments in 2013, causing the budget to be reset to 50 billion pounds.
In January 2020, the National Audit Office reported that HS2 was billions over budget and years behind schedule because the government had "failed to understand the risks" inherent in the project. Internal reviews by HS2 Ltd, the public company managing the project, found the full network could cost up to 88 billion pounds and might not be completed until 2040.
Nevertheless, by late 2019, the government's funding envelope remained fixed at 56 billion pounds -- well below projected requirements, leaving a major shortfall.
Chen Chai-Lin, senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool's Department of Geography and Planning, who has long studied high-speed rail development, told Xinhua: "It is an embarrassment to the country to have a project that was first announced 16 years ago, and Britain still relies on railway as its major transportation option."
"To do a contract with the UK, all this uncertainty adds to the future project. I think we need to sit down and then try to reflect on this situation. What's the future for the UK?" said Chen.
"APPALLING MESS"
In her Wednesday address, Alexander described HS2 as an "appalling mess" -- a "litany of failure" that resulted in missed deadlines and cost increases of 37 billion pounds between 2012 and 2024.
She confirmed the appointment of Mike Brown, former commissioner of Transport for London, as the new chair of HS2.
Systemic management problems and weak governance have compounded delays over the past 16 years. HS2 Ltd has experienced persistent internal lapses and high turnover.
In its 2013 assessment, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority cited major, seemingly unresolved issues in HS2's scope, timeline, budget, and benefits, warning that the project might need to be rescoped or fundamentally reassessed.
In 2017, HS2 Ltd admitted to paying 1.8 million pounds in unauthorized redundancy compensation -- a serious breach of governance.
Despite multiple attempts at reform, oversight remained inadequate. In February 2025, Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) declared HS2 a "casebook example of how not to run a major project." The PAC cited a "cycle of repeated failure" in collaboration between the DfT and HS2 Ltd, highlighting ongoing disagreement even over fundamental matters such as final cost, scope, and delivery date.
POLITICAL MALFUNCTION
Over time, HS2's original purpose became clouded by shifting government priorities. After commissioning an independent review in 2019, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the project the green light in early 2020, but simultaneously scrapped the eastern leg to Leeds as a cost-saving measure.
In November 2021, the government officially cancelled the Leeds branch of Phase 2, abandoning plans to extend HS2 to the East Midlands and Yorkshire. The decision, prompted by concerns over rising costs, was seen as a politically convenient way to cap spending, but it also undermined HS2's core objective of improving northern England's infrastructure.
"If investing in major infrastructure projects is an important sign that the UK is focused on growth and tackling regional inequality, this decision seems to signal the opposite," said the Institute for Government (IfG) in 2023.
In March 2023, in the face of rising inflation and tight public finances, then Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced the deferral of key HS2 segments. Phase 2a (Birmingham to Crewe) was delayed by at least two years, and construction of the London Euston terminal was paused indefinitely.
Although the official justification was to distribute spending more evenly over time, the delays only raised long-term costs. The pause at Euston followed a surge in the station's estimated cost to 4.8 billion pounds -- nearly double the original budget -- largely due to changes in design and scope.
As a result, the launch of HS2's first phase was pushed back. Rather than reaching central London, initial HS2 services will terminate at Old Oak Common in west London, with no trains expected to reach the city centre before the 2040s.
Rather than planning every detail years in advance, ministers and officials should focus on launching a minimum viable option and scaling up over time to avoid locking into expensive and inflexible commitments, the IfG recommended.
In October 2023, ahead of a general election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled the remaining northern half of HS2 -- the Birmingham to Manchester section -- during his Conservative Party conference speech. This sudden reversal came despite billions already being spent on planning and land acquisition for the now-abandoned route.
Industry groups strongly criticized the decision. A suppliers' association remarked, "Every change in scope has added to the delays and costs" on HS2.
As the PAC later noted, recent government interventions have had "damaging consequences" for HS2's timeline and financial health.
As Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, PAC chair, put it: "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." (1 pound = 1.34 U.S. dollar)

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