After eight years of planning and preparation and a ballooning budget of billions, the Government still “does not know what it is trying to achieve” with the Euston HS2 station, the very start of the controversial rail line, MPs have warned.
The massive infrastructure project, which originally planned to operate 11 new platforms for the high-speed service to Birmingham and then Manchester, is “floundering”, a critical report by the influential parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded.
The scheme, which is currently halted for two years while its costs are reassessed, started with a “wildly unrealistic” budget and ministers were “in danger” of “repeating the same mistakes of unrealistic costings”.
“HS2 Euston has shown us that forging ahead over-optimistically in an unclear direction is clearly not the right approach,” the report says.
Pausing the scheme will end up costing even more money as companies involved may need compensating for lost work, it warns.
MPs warned that the multi-billion pound scheme is seeing 30-40 per cent inflationary swings in the cost of raw materials. They say that the Department for Transport and the Treasury do not have a “clear understanding” how they will manage the rising costs.
The project was halted in March by the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, after the costs ballooned far beyond the initial £2.6bn.
HS2 Ltd said the original budget was set in the expectation it would change. Later estimates for a revised 10-platform design reached £4.8bn.
Parliament was not warned about the Euston cost pressures and the PAC said ministers need to provide greater transparency in future.
Dame Meg Hillier said: “The HS2 Euston project is floundering. This is a multibillion-pound scheme put on pause. The pause, ostensibly to save money, is not cost free. The Government must now be clear what it is trying to achieve with this new station.”
She said a “wildly unrealistic” budget for HS2 Euston was set in 2020. “The Government must demonstrate it is not just repeating the same mistakes of unrealistic costings.”
The Euston scheme involves integrating HS2 with the existing mainline railway and London Underground. HS2 trains are now not expected to run to Euston until 2041 at the earliest.
When HS2 opens between London and Birmingham – some time after 2029 – it will terminate at Old Oak Common, in north-west London where passengers can transfer on to the new Elizabeth Line continuing on to Heathrow airport or central London.
A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “We remain committed to delivering HS2 from Euston to Manchester in the most cost-effective way for taxpayers, which is why earlier this year we made the decision to rephase the construction of Euston to help balance the nation’s books and work on an affordable design for the station.
“The National Audit Office recently acknowledged this will provide time to put the station design on a more stable footing and we continue to work at pace to ensure the transformational benefits of HS2 are delivered to passengers by better connecting our biggest cities, supporting thousands of jobs and helping grow the economy.
“We note the recommendations made in the committee’s report and will respond to them in due course.”
