HS2 trains could now run slower than initially expected when the rail line eventually opens to cut spiralling costs.
Mark Wild, chief executive of the government-owned HS2 Ltd, said the flagship high-speed rail project, which is now predicted to cost £100 billion, could open at “reduced running speeds” to save money.
He said “there is a need to simplify the day-one railway” in order to reduce further delays and ballooning costs after it was revealed the remaining London to Birmingham stretch of the rail line will be delayed beyond its target opening date of 2033.
It comes after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander decried the management of the project under the previous Tory government, which she said had been “no less than a litany of failure”.
She told the Commons on Wednesday that “billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management”, as she said the costs had risen by £37bn between its approval in 2012 and last year’s general election.
The original design of the 330-mile Y-shaped network was due to connect London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with hopes that trains with a top speed of 248mph could connect London to Manchester in just over an hour.
But as the scope of the project has been cut over time by successive governments, train speeds between London and Birmingham were cut to 225 mph. Now, this could be slashed further to 200 mph when the line eventually opens.
Mr Wild, who took up the position in December, wrote in a letter to Ms Alexander: “I am looking at all available levers (e.g. opening at slightly reduced running speeds, removing automatic train operation) while protecting the long-term agility to deliver the full benefits.
“This staged approach will reduce risk, improve reliability, allow for more certainty around cost, reduce the delay to the railway’s opening and enable incremental build-up of the service,” he wrote.
The project was originally due to cost £32.7bn (in 2011 prices) with the first leg between London and the Midlands opening in late 2026.
As Ms Alexander told the Commons that HS2 would not now open in 2033, the prime minister has tasked the cabinet secretary with examining whether civil servants and other public bodies should face an investigation into their roles in the delay.
The initial plan for HS2 was to build the first phase, connecting London to Birmingham, with two branches to Manchester and Leeds. However, the Conservative government scrapped the leg to Leeds in 2021.
The Independent was the first to reveal that Rishi Sunak was pulling the plug on the remaining second leg between Birmingham to Manchester in 2023.
Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon accepted mismanagement on behalf of his party.
He said cutting the northern legs was a “product of mistakes we made in the handling of HS2” and “we must learn from those mistakes and we must not repeat them”.
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