Rail boss says implications of cancelling HS2 ‘absurd’
FOR the last decade, High Speed 2 has been one of the most controversial government plans.
The rail link from London Euston to Birmingham and beyond to both Manchester and Leeds, will involve building and tunnelling 330 miles of track through West London, Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands and was originally forecast to cost around £40 billion.
The costs of the whole scheme have since spiralled.
Parliament earmarked £56 billion for the total scheme in 2015 but a report by current HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook, published four months ago, set out an estimated cost range of between £81 billion and £88 billion.
However, a leaked report from inquiry led by the former HS2 Ltd chairman Doug Oakervee reportedly found there is “considerable risk” that the high-speed rail project’s cost will rise by up to 20% to around £106 billion.
Phase 1 of the project from London to Birmingham has already been approved and work has slowly begun, focusing on the line opening in 2026.
But the inquiry was looking into the feasibility of phase 2, which involve extending the line northeast to Leeds and north-west to Manchester.
The Oakervee review recommends that work on phase 2b of HS2 from Crewe to Manchester and Birmingham to Leeds should be paused for six months to investigate if it could work as a mix of conventional and high-speed lines, according to the Financial Times, which has seen a copy.
One of the common complaints about HS2 is that it costs too much and that money should be spent improving existing rail connections.
The new line will cut journey times from London to Birmingham to 49 minutes, compared with the current 84 minute route.
Manchester journeys will be 68 minutes rather than 100 and Leeds will be 88 rather than 140.
But some argue that journey times can still be cut with added investment into the existing lines.
Network Rail chief Andrew Haines has rubbished the idea, claiming that any such improvement would lead to an “absurd” time frame.
The Chief Executive of the body in charge of maintaining and improving the railway infrastructure told Construction News “It’s one of the things that opponents of HS2 are very good at understating.
“We did some work recently on just how much disruption you would need to do on the East Coast Main Line to do significant capacity improvements if you didn’t do HS2 phase two. I think [the timeframe for how long work would last was] something absurd.”
Haines added: “It’s very easy to talk about alternatives to HS2 but the disruption of doing that [would be great].”
As of this month, £8 billion has already been spent on the project since it was approved in 2017.
HS2 Phase 2a, is in the process of receiving parliamentary approval for the section between Birmingham and Crewe.
The High Speed Rail (West Midlands-Crewe) Bill is currently in the committee stage in the House of Lords. A third bill for the remainder of the scheme has yet to be put before parliament.
It is this phase that the report recommends holding off on in order to find out more about how costs can be cut while still delivering a high speed rail link.
To date, in Old Oak Common, West London, work has begun on the new station being built at the epicentre of the huge new Old Oak and Park Royal development.
In Euston, the Ibis Hotel and National Temperance Hospital have been demolished to make way for HS2.
Similar demolitions have also begun in Birmingham, near the new Curzon Street station.
Further along the line preparatory works and archaeological digs have been taking place in areas like Ruislip. As of yet no tracks are believed to have been laid.
HS2 will cut directly through 34 ancient woodlands and threaten 108 in total, according to the Woodland Trust. In October the government ordered a halt on all woodland clearance, like that in Haresfield, while the scheme was under review.
Although it has been leaked, the Oakervee report has not yet been released.