A timetable has been laid outNeil Lancefield, Will Meakin-Durrant and Abbie Llewelyn, Press Association and Dave Knapper West Midlands Content Editor14:56, 19 May 2026The cost of HS2 has shot up(Image: PA)High-speed trains between London and Staffordshire won’t be running for at least another 14 years. The announcement comes as Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced the HS2 project could end up costing more than £100 billion.The Cabinet minister told the Commons she was “angry” about the “obscene increase in time and costs”, which she blamed on “the failures of successive Conservative governments”. She said the expected cost of completing the high-speed railway was between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion (in 2025 prices).That means it will be more expensive than the Artemis II mission to send four astronauts to the Moon, which is estimated to have cost 93 billion US dollars to date (£69 billion). Constructing HS2 from London to Birmingham – plus the now abandoned onward legs to Leeds and Manchester – was initially estimated to cost £32.7 billion (in 2011 prices), but the budget has spiralled.Services were planned to launch in 2026, but the new target schedule is between May 2036 and October 2039. Ms Alexander also announced that HS2 trains will run slower than planned to save money.She said the maximum speed of services will be 320km/h (199mph), down from the original design of 360km/h (224mph). She branded the previous plans a “massively over-specced folly, with the prospect of the fastest trains anywhere in the world tickling the fancy of Conservative ministers”.Services will still be among “the fastest trains in Europe” despite the top speed being cut, she told MPs. Ms Alexander said the cost increase is mostly because of “past misunderstanding of the work required, underestimation and inefficiency, issues within the control of HS2 Ltd, some of its suppliers, and previous governments”.HS2 services between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham’s Curzon Street station are expected to start running between May 2036 and October 2039.Meanwhile in Staffordshire and the high-speed trains will not run between Euston station in central London and Handsacre Junction – which sits between Rugeley and King’s Bromley – until between May 2040 and December 2043. Handsacre Junction is where HS2 trains are planned to leave the dedicated high-speed tracks and merge onto the conventional West Coast Mainline.Ms Alexander said the overall budget includes work at Euston, but the Government was still seeking a private investor for the site. The revised cost and schedule for HS2 follows a comprehensive review by HS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Wild, who began his role in December 2024.A major review published following the announcement found that “gold plating” HS2, including by focusing on achieving the “highest possible speeds”, is among the faults that contributed to the project’s woes. Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the former national security adviser, criticised the “original sins” in the decision-making behind the scheme.Labour ministers commissioned an internal review into whether scrapping the entire project would be better value for money than continuing with it. This found that abandoning the scheme – which has already cost an estimated £40 billion – would cost at least as much as completing it.Get daily headlines and breaking news emailed to you – it’s FREEEnsure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search
HS2 Staffordshire latest as Government admits project could rise to £102 billion
