Ghost towns and trains to nowhere: How the £100bn HS2 line descended into farce ...Middle East

The Government will ask HS2 bosses to reduce the speed of trains running on the high speed line in a bid to lower costs, it is expected to be confirmed tomorrow.

The beleaguered high-speed rail project was supposed to see trains hit 360km/h (223mph) between London and Birmingham making it one of the fastest in the world.

But after repeated delays and spiralling costs, Labour asked chief executive Mark Wild to examine whether reducing the speed to 320km/h could save money.

It is the latest setback to HS2 which was originally supposed to open in 2026, extend beyond Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds and cost £37.5 billion.

It is now expected the reduced route is unlikely to open by a revised target of 2033 and will cost up to £100bn.

Here The i Paper looks at just some of what has gone wrong.

A £100m shed for bats

Numerous government reviews, including a new report carried out by Sir Stephen Lovegrove, have found that one of the major flaws of HS2 was its “gold-plated” engineering, meaning the railway line has been built to the highest levels of design and specification that were not necessary.

HS2 Ltd has also said that complications over planning permissions and environmental concerns have stood in the way.

The two issues came to a head in the case of a £100m bat tunnel that is being built in Buckinghamshire.

HS2 Ltd says the 1km-concrete tunnel was required to mitigate the potential harm that could be caused to a population of Bechstein’s bat found in the Bernwood Forest area.

Engineers came up with the so-called “bat shed” – which includes two specially-designed “crossing points” – to prevent bats being hit by a train in an area called Sheephouse Wood.

HS2 Ltd put the blame on Natural England, the independent body which advises the government on protecting wildlife.

But the organisation hit back, saying it does not get involved in the design of buildings and merely offers advice.

Either way, the 1km-tunnel – built in case 300 bats “forage” too close to the line at a cost of almost £340,000 per bat – has become emblematic of the farce surrounding HS2.

A high-speed line for slow-running trains

HS2 trains were originally supposed to travel at speeds of up to 320 km/h, making it one of the fastest railways in the world.

But since being elected in 2024, Sir Keir Starmer’s government has been desperate to find ways to show it can cut costs.

Chief executive Mark Wild was instructed to look at whether reducing the speed of trains on the line would save money.

It is expected his initial findings will suggest that HS2 can be reduced to a maximum speed of 320km/h.

Experts have told The i Paper that this is unlikely to save much money and could in fact contribute to further delays and escalating costs.

The line that ends in a field

Starmer’s government also inherited to tricky question of what to do about the future of HS2 beyond Birmingham.

By the time Labour was elected in 2024, former Tory PM Rishi Sunak had already cancelled what remained of the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester, but left little plan of what that would mean for the end of the line.

Some Labour MPs and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham lobbied the government to look at bringing back the idea of a new line between Birmingham and Manchester, but at a lower specification and with help from the private sector.

After two years over dithering over a decision, Labour announced earlier this year it does want to see a new line built – but that it will not happen until other rail projects, most notably Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is completed, which is not likely until the 2040s.

The i Paper revealed that the result is a 2km spur of HS2 track – estimated in one study to cost £403m per mile – will end in a field in Staffordshire and remain unused for decades.

Labour has instructed HS2 Ltd to continue the spur, which will include building a viaduct over a canal, as “passive provision” for a future railway.

£46bn spent and no rail track yet laid

The latest report on HS2 given to Parliament in March 2026 reveals that the total amount spent on the programme to date is £46.2bn.

But although progress has been made this year, no rail track has been laid yet.

This is because the “civil works” phase of the project – where viaducts, cuttings and sidings are constructed – has been hit by repeated delays and is not yet complete.

In May last year, Mark Wild said that only a third of the work had been done and that it should have been as much 80 per cent complete by then.

Wild, alongside other experts to have examined the HS2 project, says this is because work started on the railway line when designs were not yet “mature”, and because contracts signed with construction firms placed almost all the risk on HS2 Ltd.

This has meant that firms carrying out the work are trying to build a railway line without completed designs, and they are under little financial pressure to hit milestones even if they do have them.

Empty homes bought for cancelled leg

At least £3.7bn of HS2’s cost has been spent buying up land and property for the railway line.

This includes around 1,000 properties that were bought up for Phase 2 of the line between Manchester and Leeds which has now been cancelled.

Although HS2 Ltd has since started renting some of the properties back out, many of these homes are lying empty.

In Whitmore Heath, Staffordshire, residents have complained the area has been turned into a “ghost village” due to the number of vacant HS2 properties.

Last summer, the Government finally confirmed that land and properties bought up for the Leeds leg of HS2 could start to be sold off.

However, a decision continues to be delayed on HS2 land between Birmingham and Manchester due to the prospect a railway line could yet be resurrected.

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