What Went Wrong With HS2?

In 2020, the UK Prime minister, Boris Johnson approved a controversial and massive transport infrastructure project for the country, called HS2. In 2024, after over 15 years of planning. With estimated costs ballooning almost four times to a staggering £106 Billion pounds, and several massive changes to the blueprint, HS2 is still yet to be delivered.

The project was meant to connect the disproportionately populated London with the rest of the UK, including cities like Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, with the eventual goal of stretching all the way to Scotland. But the project was mired with problems from the start.

The huge environmental costs and damage to England's iconic landscapes and wildlife had protests rising up all over the country. Legal battles ensued, adding years and tens of millions of pounds to a budget that was spiralling out of control. It seemed as if the project was doomed to join other great transport engineering follies of the modern age, such as the Moscow Monorail, or the California High Speed Rail.

This is in contrast to China's High-Speed Rail network, the largest rail network in the world. The idea for this was originally floated long after planning for HS2 began in the UK, but quickly overtook it in rollout and delivery.

HS2 would have been completed in just under 2 years at the pace and level of investment. Instead, it labours on, far from the destination it promised, and at four times the predicted cost. Could this be the United Kingdom’s biggest, and most costly, infrastructure blunder ever?

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