The secretary of state for transport addressed parliament as the government released its latest parliamentary report and the Lovegrove report, on the implications of the railways runaway costs and slow delivery for the civil service.
The minister placed much of the blame on previous governments, saying that costs had increased by £37bn under the last government. The latest estimate seeks to give a clearer assessment of likely costs, and blames two thirds of the increase to past misunderstanding of the work required, underestimation and inefficiency. Only a third of the increase was, Alexander said, due to inflation,.
Quoting Mark Wild, HS2’s CEO since December 2024, Alexander said the challenge now was like ‘changing an aeroplane engine mid-flight’. A key error identified by Sir Stephen Lovegrove had been the urge to ‘goldplate’ the project, trying to launch with the fastest trains available.
This had required relying on bespoke and highly engineered design. The minister pointed out that such an approach might be justified in a country the size of China, but that UK customers just wanted more trains that can be relied on.
Now, with more standard trains, able to match maximum speeds on European high speed rail, the minister said some of this complexity could be removed. While Alexander said she could see no chance of trains running on the line before 2033, she could offer a likely completion date.
The line between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common could be running between 2036 and 2039, with the full line open between Euston and Handsacre Junction complete by 2040–2043.
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