HS2 Train
HS2 train PHOTO : HS2

Britain's next high speed railway High Speed 2 (HS2) bill has been raised up to £102bn and the trains will not run until 2039; 13 years after it was due to be completed.

The revised numbers were announced by the transportation secretary in the commons on Tuesday blaming the tories for the new numbers.

'A Litany of Failure'

Transportation Secretary Heidi Alexander blamed all of HS2's problems on the previously ruling conservative party.

'I can confirm that the previous government spent most of HS2's budget without laying a single mile of track. That is the shocking legacy ... If it seems like an obscene increase in times and costs, that is because it is. And if it seems like I'm angry, I am,' she said.

In June 2025, Alexander said that following 'a litany of failure' she was 'drawing a line in the sand' and the government would get HS2 finished.

Mark Wild, chief executive of the project's delivery company HS2 Ltd, was tasked with carrying out a comprehensive 'reset,' according to the BBC.

The chair of the Transport Committee, Ruth Cadbury, said the problem with HS2 was 'not just the speed, but also that spades were in the ground before the project had been fully designed, permits granted and so on.'

'It broke the mantra of major projects, which is plan slow and build fast,' she said on BBC's Today programme.

Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden responded to Alexander's claims: 'Whilst Labour talk about cost, you won't hear them admit they handed their union paymasters a 15% pay rise, costing the taxpayer £135m in the first year alone, or the fact that industry leaders are warning that their nationalisation plans will drive up costs by £10bn.'

What is HS2?

'The railway links our two biggest economic centres, connects people with jobs and is attracting major investment before services begin. It then extends north of Birmingham to Handsacre in Staffordshire. Here, HS2 trains will connect to the West Coast Main Line for the North West and Scotland,' according to HS2's website.

'Right now, around 30,000 construction workers and over 3,500 UK businesses are creating the foundations for our future rail network,' it goes on to say.

For all of HS2's problems some key structures have been completed however, such as, the 10-mile tunnel under the Chilterns, and the Colne Valley viaduct.

As part of efforts to get the project back on track, HS2 Ltd has previously said it would slow or pause work such as the line towards Handsacre, so it could focus spend on areas which had fallen behind - notably the central section across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, according to the BBC.

'Resetting HS2'

Alexander said Wild and HS2 Ltd's chair, Mike Brown, 'have an almost impossible task on their hands' to turn HS2 around, but it would be managed properly now with vastly improved oversight.

Wild said: 'I recognise this will be unwelcome news for local communities and taxpayers, and I share in their disappointment that it will take longer and cost more to bring HS2 into service.'

'Resetting HS2 was the only way to regain control of the project. We have turned a corner in the last 12 months with significantly improved levels of productivity, helping us to deliver major milestones ahead of schedule,' he said.

'Better journeys, more capacity on the network, and economic growth are all vital to the country's future prosperity, and that's exactly what we will deliver.'

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