Visit any of the vast tunnels, viaducts, or bridges taking shape along the HS2 route, and you will probably be impressed. The engineering achievements of this scheme are not in doubt, but as a whole it has come to be seen as an example of how not to do a major infrastructure project. Costs have gone up and the schedule has slipped.

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Now, following a “reset” of the project, we’ve had the revelation that the cost of HS2 could exceed £100bn - and that’s the price tag for a much shorter railway than originally planned. The Leeds and Manchester branches were scrapped a few years ago.

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Reasons for things going wrong have been identified by successive government-commissioned reviews, the latest of which was published today alongside the update from the transport secretary. These include a focus on the highest possible speeds, changing objectives and political priorities, and contracts being awarded before the design was mature enough. That’s in addition to costs and risks being badly underestimated.

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There’s further delay to the project, too. Passengers won’t ride the first trains for at least another decade and they won’t travel all the way to Euston in central London, which has a building site with no current design plan, for at least another 14 years.

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The transport secretary laid the blame for past failures at the feet of previous governments. But she insisted the new leadership team was turning things around. 

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The essential: HS2 has become much more expensive and taken much longer to deliver than originally planned. Further delays mean passengers face a long wait before they can hop on board. 

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