HS2’s 2026 open date is “unrealistic”, says NAO report - CILT(UK)
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HS2’s 2026 open date is “unrealistic”, says NAO report

01 July 2016/Categories: Industry News


The HS2 high-speed rail programme is “facing cost and time pressures”, according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Phase one of HS2, a 140-mile link London to the West Midlands, is targeted to open in 2026 but that date is “at risk despite good progress” due to an over-ambitious schedule set by the Department for Transport.

Funding is also an issue with the first phase expected to cost £27.4 billion, which would overshoot available funding by £204 million.

The combined impact of cost and schedule pressures facing the project could lower the cost-to-benefit ratio from 1.7 to around 1.5.

Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd are 60 per cent confident that phase one of the programme will be delivered by 2026, however HS2 Ltd is reviewing the schedule with the aim of increasing this to 80 per cent.

NAO head Amyas Morse said that such a “large, complex and ambitious programme” like HS2 was working to an “unrealistic timetable” which “means they are not as ready to deliver as they hoped to be at this point”.

“[DfT] now needs to get the project working to a timescale that is achievable,” she added.

Cost estimates for phase two, which would branch north to Manchester and Leeds from 2033, are still at an early stage but the 2015 Spending Review suggested that its cost could also exceed available funding, this time by £7 billion.

Available funding for the entire project was agreed at £55.7 billion, including infrastructure and rolling stock, in 2015.

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