IN Brief:
- HS2’s revised cost range has been put at £87.7bn–£102.7bn in 2026 prices.
- First services between Old Oak Common and Birmingham are now expected between 2036 and 2039.
- The full Euston to Handsacre route is scheduled for completion between 2040 and 2043.
HS2 Ltd is working to a revised project cost range of £87.7bn–£102.7bn, with the latest reset pushing first services on the high-speed railway into the late 2030s and full completion into the early 2040s.
The updated programme places first passenger services between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street between 2036 and 2039. The full route from London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street, including the Handsacre connection to the West Coast Main Line, is now expected to complete between 2040 and 2043.
The figures follow a 15-month review led by HS2 chief executive Mark Wild, who was brought in to establish a more credible baseline for the project. That work has now produced a sharper view of the financial and programme challenge still facing the railway, despite visible progress across major civils packages, station works, tunnelling, and structures.
A reduction in operating speed is among the most notable technical changes. The line was originally designed around a maximum speed of 360km/h, but the revised approach is expected to move closer to 320km/h. That would bring HS2 nearer to more widely used high-speed railway standards and is intended to reduce cost, testing burden, signalling complexity, and commissioning risk.
The reset builds on earlier work to review speed, scope, and delivery sequencing. As the HS2 reset moved towards year-end, the speed review had already become a central part of the project’s attempt to control technical and commercial exposure. The latest cost range now gives that process a harder financial boundary.
Although lower speed may reduce some railway systems complexity, it does not reverse the cost of decisions already embedded in the programme. Large parts of the civil engineering work are committed, underway, or designed around earlier assumptions. Controlling the remaining cost will depend on the interface between completed works, live civils packages, railway systems, station delivery, rolling stock, testing, and operational readiness.
The project also continues to expose recurring weaknesses in UK infrastructure delivery. Early optimism, political changes in scope, shifting specifications, fragmented accountability, and complex contract interfaces have all affected the programme. HS2 is unusual in scale, but the delivery problems it has made visible are not unique.
Contractors and suppliers will still see major workload from the programme for many years. That workload will, however, sit under tighter scrutiny. Claims management, productivity records, change control, and package-level cost discipline are likely to become increasingly central as the client organisation attempts to hold the revised baseline.
A programme extending into the 2040s must also retain specialist capability across civil engineering, tunnelling, stations, high-voltage systems, signalling, track, rail systems, testing, and commissioning. That creates a long-term skills and capacity challenge while other infrastructure programmes compete for many of the same engineers, supervisors, commercial staff, and specialist trades.
The reset does not stop HS2. It changes the basis on which the project will be judged. Future progress will need to show not only that construction is continuing, but that scope, cost, and programme control have moved onto firmer ground.
