Ministers to order HS2 slowdown

Image from Isabelle Miller

Ministers have ordered HS2 to look at reducing the speed of their trains by roughly 16%, in a bid to reduce costs. The project has almost tripled its budget from £37.5b to over £100b, and faced numerous delays since construction began in 2020.

The transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she is “determined to explore every opportunity to remove the over-specification and complexity from this project to bring down costs and delivery timelines”.

The original speed target for the project was 360km/h, which would have made it the fastest conventional high-speed rail in the world, but reductions would bring it down to 320-300km/h, matching the speed of other high-speed railways. As there are no suitable tracks to test trains at such a speed, the entire track would have needed to be built before the trains could be tested at full speed.

Local Impact

HS2 works have led to multiple road closures and delays around Balsall Common over the last few months, with some set to last until the end of the year.

Councillor Andrew Burrow spoke of the impact these road closures have had on locals. He said, “People are feeling disgruntled because generally this adds no benefit for my ward.”

Even though the HS2 trains will still be generally slightly faster than most standard train lines, Andrew said the cost makes this of no use to residents. He said, “Theoretically, once it's complete, people will be able to go up to where the airport and the NEC are to the new station there and go into London.”

“But for most people, that is of no interest whatsoever. Catching the North Western trains into London from Berkswell station or out of Warwick Parkway would be the route of choice for most people because they're significantly cheaper than this line will be.”

Andrew has been trying to reduce the impact of HS2 on the village. He said, “I went twice to the House of Commons Select Committee and once to the House of Lords Committee, to plead for mitigation on this project. HS2's position at that time was we're going to say no to everything and sort it out afterwards.”

“Well, I never accepted that, and we did get some legal assurances from them. So by talking to the local contractors, you can sometimes get them to be more helpful than HS2 will be, because they do genuinely understand.”

As HS2 continues to become more expensive and delayed, this slowdown is leaving many residents impacted by the works wondering if it’ll actually be worth it in the end.