From BBC UK today:
The failings surrounding the HS2 rail project are partly due to a focus on achieving the highest possible speeds and political pressure for progress on the scheme, a review is expected to find.
The scheme has been undergoing a “reset”, and in March Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander asked HS2 bosses to look at lowering top speeds to save money.
This comes on top of an earlier, though not much, admission of failure. From BBC England 29 December 2025:
HS2 has confirmed that its aim to get trains running between Birmingham and London between 2029 and 2033 “cannot be achieved”. Birmingham’s Curzon Street Station is currently taking shape in the heart of the city but the divisive high-speed railway project has been plagued by serious challenges. Earlier this year, HS2 CEO Mark Wild acknowledged that construction had been “harder than thought” and “needed a reset” involving a review of the project’s cost and schedule.
The high speed track, including the branch to Birmingham, is 225 kilometres (140 miles) long and work began in 2019. The 14 year target is now unachievable. There is no mention of any government blame for this in BBC media reports. Imagine it happened in Scotland?
How long have other countries taken to build comparable systems?
Japan (Shinkansen)
- First line (Tōkaidō Shinkansen, Tokyo to Osaka, 515 km, initial operating speed 210 km/h, later increased): Construction started in 1959 and opened in 1964 → about 5-5.5 years for the initial segment.
France (TGV)
- First line (Paris to Lyon, ~400 km, 260-270 km/h initially): Planning in the 1970s; construction began late 1970s; opened in 1981 → roughly 5-10 years from major construction start to first service.
Was Scotland ever in the plans? See this from BBC Scotland in in October 2023:
Scotland has long-known it was not part of the HS2 plans but Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he is to scrap the line from Birmingham to Manchester will still have an impact north of the border.
Really? See this from BBC Scotland in December 2009:
Birmingham: 45mins, down from 1h 22mins
Liverpool: 1hr 23mins, down from 2hrs 8mins
Manchester: 1hr 6mins, down from 2hrs 7mins
Edinburgh: 2hrs 9mins, down from 4hrs 23mins
Glasgow: 2hrs 16mins, down from 4hrs 10 mins
Source: Network Rail http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8432051.stm
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Then there’s China. 50,000 km of HSR and counting. England was recently talking about sending their HS train to China for testing because there isn’t the line to test it in England. Of course, if Scotland was involved that would have to be banned as a security risk.
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