Royal Assent was granted for Phase 2a of HS2 on 11 February 2021. The Government's latest updated cost estimate for Phase 2a is £5.2-7.2bn (in 2019 prices).
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HS2 will free up capacity on the existing lines, enabling more local commuter services and more freight services – more freight trains will help take lorries off the road and provide environmental benefits. The project has had a negative effect on economic, social and environmental factors.
The entirety of the HS2 rail link between London and Birmingham is to be scrapped and replaced with a train of Dacia Sanderos welded together, the government has announced.
HS2 will be delayed by another two years and major roadbuilding schemes will be mothballed, ministers have confirmed, after soaring inflation added billions to the cost of transport infrastructure projects.
Studies have found that high-?speed trains can generate new economic development near the stations where the trains stop. However, the same studies show that economic development slows in communities not served by such trains.
HS2 will also play a crucial role delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail – the backbone for an integrated northern rail network. Together these better connections will help to level-up the country.
The rolling stock will run at a maximum speed of 360 km/h (225 mph) and will operate on both HS2 track and existing conventional track. The proposed network has been reduced substantially since it was announced in 2013. The line would originally have formed a 'Y' shape, branching north of Birmingham Interchange.
HS2 does not anticipate being the fastest network once it is up and running. Indeed, Japan has already test-run a new bullet train, powered by electrically charged magnets, which reached an incredible 603km per hour.
While most Shinkansen currently operate at a maximum of 300 kph (186 mph), the E5 “Bullet Trains” of Japan Railways East (JR East) run at up to 320 kph (200 mph) on the Tohoku Shinkansen, which runs north from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori.
The UK government has invested in the HS2 high-speed rail project since 2011. The project consists of a railroad line that will connect London with cities such as Manchester and Birmingham.
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.
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.
The landmark contracts – worth an initial £2bn – will see the JV design, build and maintain a fleet of 54 state-of-the-art high-speed trains that will operate on HS2. They are the first trains in the world to achieve the British Standards Institute's PAS 2080 global accreditation.