HS2 Rail Line Review Points to Speed and Politics as Causes of Failure

The HS2 rail line failed in part due to a focus on achieving the highest possible speeds and political pressure, a review is expected to find.

The scheme has been undergoing a "reset", and in March Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander asked HS2 bosses to look at lowering top speeds to save money.

This latest report into HS2, expected to be published this week, is authored by former National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove and has considered the implications for the civil service and public sector.

Its findings are expected to agree with a previous review that HS2's so-called "original sins" included changing political priorities and ballooning costs.

The review is also expected to highlight the "gold-plating" of the high-speed concept, "resulting in [a] bespoke and highly engineered design".

In the coming days, Alexander is expected to confirm that trains won't start running by the current target date of 2033 and will also provide an updated price tag for the project.

HS2's main purpose was to increase capacity on the rail network but it has suffered rising costs and delays.

Under the initial plans, first confirmed in 2012, the rail line would have run from London to Birmingham, and then on two separate lines to Leeds and Manchester.

However, in 2021, the government said it was cancelling the eastern leg going to Leeds. Two years later, the section between Manchester and Birmingham was also ditched.

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

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

Earlier this year the transport secretary said she was "determined to explore every opportunity" to "bring down costs and delivery timetables" including reducing the top speeds of trains on the line.

HS2 had been designed to allow trains to run up to 360 km/h (224 mph), which would have made the line faster than any other conventional railway in the world.

Most high-speed trains in the UK run at around 220 km/h, while HS1, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, reaches speeds of up to 300 km/h.

Although it will be years before the railway opens, HS2 is in its peak construction phase.

A number of key structures have been completed, for example 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.