What's happening with HS2 as boss orders reset as London to Birmingham train project spirals out of control

Those behind the enormous project have said flagship stations at Brum’s Curzon Street, Interchange, Old Oak Common and Euston will boost growth and nearly halve the journey times between Birmingham and London.

But it has proved controversial in the past due to delays, cost increases and decisions from central government to scrap sections of the line.

With serious challenges continuing to plague HS2, the new CEO has now confirmed that a “reset of the programme” will take place and involve a review of the project’s cost and schedule.

Against this backdrop, he was not able to commit to whether the first trains between Birmingham and Old Oak Common in London would run between 2029 and 2033, as suggested previously.

There is then further uncertainty around when trains from Birmingham on the HS2 line could go onwards to Euston in the heart of the capital city.

Here’s what you need to know about the HS2 ‘reset’ – from why it’s happening to potential delays and how they may affect Birmingham.

Why is the reset happening?

HS2 has admitted the project faces “serious challenges” and added that resetting the programme will ensure it can “deliver the economic growth and better journeys that HS2 promises”.

“Resetting a major programme like HS2 is common in the global infrastructure industry,” it said.

“Delivery hasn’t matched optimistic early expectations; the schedule has fallen out of sequence and costs have increased.”

It went on to say that CEO Mark Wild will lead a complete review of HS2’s cost and schedule to “break the cycle of continuous overruns”.

“Mark was brought into Crossrail to lead its recovery following delays and cost overruns in 2018, which led to the successful opening of the Elizabeth line,” it said.

When will trains run between Birmingham and London?

It was previously suggested that the first trains between Birmingham and Old Oak Common in London would run between 2029 and 2033.

But Hannah Willets, head of project delivery at HS2, recently told a Birmingham City Council transport meeting that the date could change as the reset gets under way.

She also acknowledged there was further uncertainty about when trains on the HS2 line could run between Birmingham and beyond Old Oak Common to Euston.

Councillor David Barker asked her: “We’re expecting services from here to London to be between 2029 and 2033 – is it to Euston or Old Oak Common?

“There’s an issue of the uncertainty here affecting business because if it’s the latter […] I worry about it damaging the investment in our city.”

“HS2 are going through a reset at the moment,” Hannah Willets responded. “About two weeks ago, the reset programme was announced and that’s going to take place over the next 12 months.

“They will be looking at the programme and rebaselining the costs as well for HS2.

“So that date, the 2029 to 2033 date, may change and that was for train services to be operational from Birmingham to Old Oak Common.

“There’s still further work and still uncertainties I think around Euston, although I do know the tunnel boring, which is really crucial for Euston to actually be a viable proposition, has commenced.

“It’s very much still on the table but we don’t have any clear dates yet unfortunately.”

What has HS2’s CEO said about the ‘reset’?

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) recently about why a ‘reset’ was needed, CEO Mark Wild said: “This is of a scale never done before – the last mainline terminus we built was 1899 in Marylebone.

“Truth is also the construction has been harder than we would have thought so we’ve lost ground in construction.

“So a combination of factors of getting a little bit behind and also the complexity to come means we need to reset the programme.”

“The good news is that this is all completely solvable and I’m very, very confident,” he added. “But you get one chance to reset it to give people confidence.”

Asked whether the aim was for trains to run between 2029 and 2033, Mr Wild responded: “There is fantastic work going on here, you just need to look at the amazing engineering work, the quality of the people, the commitment.

“We’re so far into the civil engineering now, it’s time to reset – as frustrating as it is, that will take me the rest of this year to do.

“Standing here, I don’t really have an answer – I’m just going to do the work.”

He continued: “I have said to the government though, before the summer I’ll give them some advice and we aim by the end of this calendar year to have firm advice about the time.

“I hope people are patient – it’s the only time we’ll do it [a programme reset] from now until the end of the job.”

Mr Wild also said that they are doing a lot of work “productivity-wise” in the meantime.

“Two things are happening in parallel,” he said. “Peak production and at the same time, parallel to the reset.

“It’s not like we’re sitting on our laurels.”

What has the government said?

During a visit to Curzon Street Station earlier this month, Darren Jones, the government’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the LDRS: “[HS2] have been doing some great things but we also know the project has lost control in terms of time and cost – and that’s a real problem for us.

“So there’s going to be lots of lessons that we can learn from the HS2 project to apply to other big projects across the country.”

But Mr Jones could also not say whether trains will run between 2029 and 2033.

“We’ll get a clearer answer for that from the new HS2 Ltd boss Mark Wild and the team in the run-up to June,” he said. “We’ll be able to confirm at that stage.

“We want to make sure we’re working at pace as quickly as possible but making sure we’re getting the job done properly the first time round.”