High-speed rail was touted as a game-changer in Britain. Costs are making the government think twice
The British government is considering scrapping a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England
LONDON — The British government confirmed Sunday it may scrap a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England.
British media reported that an announcement is expected this week that the line will end in Birmingham – 100 miles (160 kilometers) from London — rather than further north in Manchester.
The Conservative government insists no final decision has been made about the embattled High Speed 2 project.
But Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said it was “proper and responsible” to reconsider a project whose costs have ballooned because of high inflation driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“We’ve seen very, very high global inflation in a way that no government could have predicted,” said Shapps, a former transportation secretary who now serves as the U.K.'s defense minister.
“It would be irresponsible to simply spend money, carry on as if nothing had changed,” he told the BBC.
The projected cost of the line, once billed as Europe’s largest infrastructure project, was estimated at 33 billion pounds in 2011 and has soared to more than 100 billion pounds ($122 billion) by some estimates.
HS2 is the U.K.’s second high-speed rail line, after the HS1 route that links London and the Channel Tunnel connecting England to France. With trains traveling at a top speed of around 250 m.p.h. (400 kph), the new railway was intended to slash journey times and increase capacity between London, the central England city of Birmingham and the northern cities
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