HS2 chief admits £80bn project up to three years behind schedule

The HS2 high-speed train line is only about "one third complete" and up to three years behind schedule, the project's chief executive has admitted. Milk Wild, who was brought in to rescue HS2 last year, told MPs that not enough progress was made in the first two years of the initiative.

He said: "After five years of civil engineering, we are at least two to three years behind. We are about one-third complete against the whole scheme. In the first two years of effort, we simply didn't make enough progress."

He added: "The real delay is the 100 miles of civil engineering between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street."

Phase one of HS2 between London and Birmingham was initially planned to open by the end of 2026.

This was later pushed back to between 2029 and 2033 but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said last month there was "no route" to meeting that timeframe.

The final bill for the first phase of the 225mph railway could reach £80billion at current prices, it emerged in December last year.

In 2013, HS2 was estimated to cost £37.5 billion (at 2009 prices) for the entire planned network, including the now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

In June last year, HS2 Ltd assessed the cost for the line between London and Birmingham would be up to £66 billion.

Mr Wild told the Commons Transport Select Committee: "The construction of the civil engineering should have been largely completed by now.

"The reality is we're about 60% complete."

He added: "The whole scheme, which includes, of course, the tracks, the overhead lines, the trains, the system integration, we're about a third complete."

Mr Wild described the project as "a unique challenge in this country".

He went on: "A third of this route is actually underground or in cuttings.

"This is a huge, considerable, maybe the biggest civil engineering project ever undertaken in this country.

"The facts are, in the first two years of effort, we simply didn't make enough progress."

Rail minister Lord Hendy, who also gave evidence to the committee,

He went on to say it was unclear why it was decided HS2 should be an "exceptionally fast railway, rather than just a fast railway".

The design speed for HS2 tracks is 400km/h (250mph), and the trains will have a maximum speed of 360km/h (225mph).

Lord Hendy noted that Eurostar trains are permitted to run at up to 300km/h (185mph) on HS1, which connects London St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel.

He said: "It is hard to understand why there was such zealotry (with HS2) about the highest-speed railway in a relatively small country, when the origination of it was to relieve capacity."

HS2's speed has been blamed for inflating costs and increasing the complexity of designs.