HS2 scheme ‘will not be completed on time’ as report highlights ‘litany’ of failures behind ‘£100billion white elephant’ railway line
The disastrous HS2 scheme was delayed again yesterday, as a scathing report identified a ‘litany’ of failures and the rail line was labelled a ‘£100 billion white elephant’.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs the gargantuan project was an ‘appalling mess’, with an audit revealing endemic overspending, hundreds of millions of pounds wasted and poor decision-making.
Ms Alexander said there was no hope of meeting the current completion target of 2033, without putting a deadline as to when it would eventually be finished.
Critics last night urged the Government to abandon HS2 altogether. The project has been a totem of waste in recent years, with taxpayer cash squandered on frivolities including a £100 million bat tunnel to protect local wildlife, and £20,000 for a Lego replica of Old Oak Station, the west London hub connecting HS2 with the Elizabeth Line.
Yesterday’s 130-page report revealed yet more liberal spending, with £250 million blown on the cost of just two failed designs for a revamped Euston station.
Tory grandee David Davis, a long-term critic of HS2, told the Mail: ‘It’s a £100 billion white elephant, and it’s still moving.
‘It’s going to cost a lot more than £100 billion. I would rather have 50 small, effective railways than one HS2.’
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs the gargantuan project was an ‘appalling mess’
Construction workers and members of the media look on moments after tunnel boring machine ‘Cecelia’ breaks through, after tunneling under the Chiltern Hills
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, led the calls for the project to be abandoned completely.
He said: ‘Has the moment not come to recognise this is a failure? Let’s scrap HS2, let’s use the tens of billions of pounds we can save in the next decade to upgrade railway lines… and spend the rest on other national priorities.’
The review, carried out by infrastructure expert James Stewart, found there was ‘no single reason’ for HS2’s dismal failures to date, but identified political turmoil, prioritising ‘iconic’ design over practicality and indecision at a senior level among the problems.
Mr Stewart said the HS2 board lacked the requisite skill needed to deliver Europe’s largest infrastructure project, while suppliers ‘largely failed to deliver’ what they promised.
There were even claims of fraud by subcontractors in the supply chain, which the Government said would ‘be investigated rapidly and rigorously’.
The report said HS2 was ‘in a state of flux and uncertainty’, and a ‘fundamental reset’ was required. Ms Alexander admitted: ‘It’s an appalling mess but it’s one we will sort out.’
Labour backbencher Dave Robertson said people were ‘absolutely sick of HS2’.
HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then on to Manchester and Leeds, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives because of costs.
HS2’s 2.1-mile long viaduct crossing the Colne Valley in Hertfordshire. The cost of the project has reportedly increased by £37billion
An artist’s impression of what HS2 will look like
In 2013, HS2 was estimated to cost £37.5 billion (at 2009 prices) for the entire planned network, including the now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham.
In June last year, HS2 Ltd assessed the cost for the line between London and Birmingham would be up to £66 billion.
Budgeting was not helped by HS2 Ltd’s ‘consistent inability’ to produce reliable cost and timeframe estimates, the report found.
Ms Alexander also highlighted an assessment by Mark Wild, the chief executive of HS2 Ltd, which described ‘the overall situation with respect to cost, schedule and scope’ as ‘unsustainable’.
She added: ‘Based on his advice, I see no route by which trains can be running by 2033 as planned.’
