How much did the original HS2 cost?

A high-speed rail network originally budgeted at £32.7bn to link London, Manchester and Leeds in 2012 was revised up to £55bn in 2015. It remains at the current £71bn only due to savage pruning and a wilful refusal to update the price over years of runaway inflation.



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What we do. High Speed Two (HS2) Limited is the company responsible for developing and promoting the UK's new high speed rail network. It is funded by grant-in-aid from the government.

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Environmental groups The Woodland Trust opposes the current route of the proposed High Speed 2 rail link because of its impact on ancient woodland. It reports that 108 ancient woods are threatened with loss or damage from the project.

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HS2 Ltd, the state-funded body responsible for delivering the line, failed to add enough contingency to its cost estimates after using a calculation method that was inappropriate for the early stage of the programme.

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The main gain of HS2 is that it frees up space on the rail network for more freight services. This point has often been missed in discussions about the project. There is no doubt that there would be environmental gains. The passenger gains are less compelling and less urgent.

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High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages.

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FirstGroup to operate West Coast and HS2 franchises with Trenitalia. FirstGroup's 70-30 joint venture with Italian state railway operator Trenitalia was told by the Department for Transport that it intended to award the new West Coast Partnership rail franchise to the companies.

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The HS2 rail line will provide significant extra capacity for passengers and freight within the UK and to continental Europe, along with other significant predicted national and local economic benefits that will come from sharing some of the South East's wealth.

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In fact, the only high speed network with a top speed similar to HS2's is in China, where trains can reach 350km per hour – still less than HS2's 360.

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According to recent estimates, adjusted for 2022 inflation figures, the cost of HS2 now stands at as much as £92 billion. Further cost overruns on the first phase of the project could take the overall spending envelope to more than £100 billion.

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The maximum speed currently possible in the UK is 186mph, achieved by Eurostar trains on the HS1 line between London and the Channel Tunnel. The HS1 line is used by Eurostar services and Javelin commuter services from Kent, although the latter have a max speed of 140mph.

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HS2 Ltd's destruction of ancient woodland and veteran trees is unacceptable. We'll keep pushing hard to save these precious habitats.

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HS2 was originally envisaged to operate more trains an hour and higher speeds than any comparable high-speed line elsewhere in the world. It has been estimated that this pushed up costs by about 10 per cent.

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What is the route for HS2? The new railway line running between London and the West Midlands would carry 400m-long (1,300ft) trains with as many as 1,100 seats per train, reaching speeds of up to 250mph and would run as often as 14 times an hour in each direction.

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