The High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, the UK’s first high speed rail line approved back in 2012, has recently suffered another blow. Now the Department for Transport has confirmed delays to HS2’s anticipated completion. The project has since grown to reach well beyond its original deadline of 2033. This announcement comes as prices are still soaring. They have ballooned from an originally-anticipated £33 billion to tumultuous projections as high as £106 billion.
Originally scheduled to open by 2026, HS2’s estimated costs ballooned in the interim. By 2013, that budget had ballooned to almost £50 billion. Despite clear evidence that the project has grown by an outrageous £37 billion since its approval. The latest independent estimates put the residual costs at between £45 billion and £54 billion in 2019 price terms. Management believes the potential total cost could go as high as £57 billion.
The California high-speed rail project has weathered many storms, including President Trump’s subsequent cancellation of most of its planned routes. Most damagingly, the eastern leg connecting Birmingham and Leeds has been cancelled. At the same time, the planned HS2 route between Birmingham and Manchester is scrapped. Even so, these decisions are another example of the changing scope that has haunted the project ever since it was first conceived.
Heidi Alexander, an influential member of the project’s governing body, reacted with dismay to the news.
“It gives me no pleasure to deliver news like this.” – Heidi Alexander
In a pointed critique of the management surrounding HS2, Alexander remarked on the financial implications of mismanagement, stating that “billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management.” She further emphasized that these issues have “laid bare the shocking mismanagement of the project under previous governments.”
Gareth Bacon, another leading HS2 figure admitted to the challenges experienced at every stage of the HS2 life cycle. He admitted that “mistakes were made in the delivery of HS2.” This new concession is a harsh reminder of the myriad of challenges that have caused both project delays and cost overruns.
To help tackle these perennial problems, the independent report – specifically concentrating on governance and accountability – was commissioned by James Stewart. We hope this report will shed light on ways in which HS2 Ltd. could change its approach to management in future phases. Retainability Mark Wild, just appointed chief exec of HS2 last year. He is now primed to play a major role in seeing that these changes come to fruition.
Even as those conversations proceed and alternative strategies are suggested, HS2’s future is not clear. But it is the government’s intention that this should create a more rigidly efficient infrastructure delivery framework in the UK, preferably with the right projects. Alexander said that the two HS2 reports want to “establish a line in the sand.” They will reset the way we deliver these types of projects.