Star Comment: HS2 was a sound concept but this project has been a disaster from the start
At every turn, HS2 brings us unpleasant surprises. From severely curtailing its original vision to suffering eye-watering rising costs, the project has been a disaster from the start.
And now a project that was meant to level up the north and was then half-axed to only reach Birmingham has seen its completion date slip well into the next decade.
HS2 has confirmed that its aim to get trains running between Birmingham and London between 2029 and 2033 ‘cannot be achieved’.
Birmingham’s Curzon Street Station is currently taking shape in the heart of the city but the divisive high-speed railway project has been plagued by serious challenges.
And the danger is that if and when it ever gets finished, the world will have moved on.
HS2 was a sound concept and originally aimed to link up London with Birmingham and then on to Manchester and Leeds.
But it became clear costs were rising to an unsustainable level. By the time politicians decided to pull the plug it was too late to prevent its progress to Birmingham. It was also too late to reverse compulsory purchase orders on homes and land on a route that will never see a single section of rail laid down. We have a curtailed project that will potentially bring the Second City closer to London but does nothing to improve our links to the north.
Now, incredibly, we face another “reset” involving a review of the project’s cost and schedule. That means more potential cuts and huge uncertainty on the date when trains will run.
Other countries have delivered major rail projects.
We have some of the world's finest civil engineers, yet it appears UK PLC is unable to deliver without lurching from crisis to crisis.
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