Traffic & Transport
HS2: Heidi Alexander to set out true cost of rail project – and when trains will begin to run | HS2
The latest estimate of the cost of HS2 and a timetable to complete construction of the high-speed railway will be set out by the government on Tuesday, including plans to run trains slower to trim costs.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, is expected to give the first official reckoning of the troubled project’s budget in 2026 prices, which HS2’s backers hope will remain substantially below £100bn.
She will also set out when trains are expected to start running between London and Birmingham as part of the long-awaited “reset” of HS2’s construction and contracts. Last year the project was delayed beyond 2033.
The HS2 Ltd chief executive, Mark Wild, is understood to have given the full findings of his review of the project several months ago, and ministers have been considering whether further cost savings were feasible or desirable, including reducing the top speed of trains from 360km/h to 320km/h, nearer the standard European limit.
Plans to build the line with automatic train operation may also be jettisoned. The system does not replace drivers entirely but is primarily used on the busiest metropolitan rail lines with high-frequency services to manage train movement for maximum capacity.
The changes appear likely after excerpts of a further critical report listing HS2’s “original sins” were briefed out by the Department for Transport, including criticism of the “gold plating” of the initial project design and “focusing on the highest possible speeds”.
The report, commissioned by Keir Starmer and written by the former national security adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove, echoed a review conducted by James Stewart last year into the costs of HS2 and major infrastructure projects.
Lovegrove’s report said that interviews with senior officials involved in HS2 showed the damage done by “changing objectives and political priorities”, as well as awarding some of the biggest civil engineering contracts too soon without sharing the risk of escalating prices.
He found that there was “little doubt that all players, certainly at HS2 Ltd and the Department [for Transport], felt under significant pressure from ministers to keep things moving”.
It adds: “As one interviewee put it, the questions are therefore ‘why [the government] failed to identify and act on the scale of failure in the company’ and whether ‘it was reasonable to assume that the Department had reasonable oversight’?”
A government source said: “The Lovegrove report further confirms the astonishing extent to which previous Conservative governments had totally lost control of HS2, frittering billions of taxpayer’s money away and leaving the project no closer to being finished than when it started.
“It has been a sorry mess, but this government has done the hard yards to pull the project out of the dirt and deliver the better connections that have long been promised to the Midlands.”
The project was first approved by the coalition government in January 2012 with a £32bn budget for a Y-shaped line reaching Manchester and Leeds, but was pruned back to a single line between London and Birmingham in 2023. Designs for the eventual London Euston terminus are still to be announced.
Traffic & Transport
Rail passengers face second day of disruption across north-west England | Rail transport
Rail passengers are facing a second day of travel disruption across parts of north-west England, after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region.
The power failure, which occurred shortly before 2pm on Thursday, triggered widespread cancellations and delays to services including CrossCountry and London Northwestern Railway.
Operators whose services continued to be affected on Friday morning were Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE) and Transport for Wales.
National Rail said this morning that although trains are now able to operate, there could be delays until noon as several trains and crew are in the wrong locations for the start of service today.
“This means that some trains are still expected to be affected this morning. Trains across the Greater Manchester area and north-west of England may still be cancelled in full or revised to only run for part of their normal journey until service is able to fully recover,” it said.
Northern Rail has advised passengers not to travel before 10am today. TPE has told its passengers should prepare for disruption before midday today, with delays and cancellations to be expected.
Greater Manchester, the Midlands and north-west England were hit the hardest by the rail disruption, with thousands of passengers unable to complete their journeys.
The facility in Manchester that experienced the outage was one of 12 operating centres designed to eventually manage the entire British rail network, Network Rail said when it opened in 2014.
A wartime bomb was also discovered near the railway between Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent, which deepened disruption on Thursday, National Rail said.
Chris Wright, Network Rail’s north-west route director, said: “I’d like to thank passengers for their patience after yesterday’s power outage and the disruption it caused across the north-west.
“Our engineers worked through the night to restore signalling systems and recover the railway, and I’m pleased that most services are now running this morning.
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“While some passengers may still experience disruption, we’re continuing to work closely with train operators to return services to normal as quickly as possible. Anyone planning to travel this morning should continue to check before they travel for the latest information.”
Andy Bowes-Roden, deputy editor at Modern Railways magazine, told BBC Radio 5 Live there would be “quite a lot of disruption this morning easing throughout the day”.
“Hopefully by rush hour the service will be back to normal, but it won’t be until tomorrow morning that this will be sorted,” he said. “As rail passengers, we are lucky. We have protections and the railways are obliged to get us where they promise to get us. But there will be an awful lot of refunds.”
Traffic & Transport
Brits in Majorca face traffic chaos on August 12 – mopeds and cars restrictions in place
Motor restrictions will be in place in just a few days on the holiday island loved by Brits.
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Traffic & Transport
Trains stop across north-west England after power cut hits signalling centre | Rail transport
Trains across parts of north-west England have ground to a halt after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region.
Passengers awaiting Northern and TransPennine trains have been advised not to travel, with widespread cancellations and other services delayed by more than an hour already.
The National Rail enquiries website warned passengers of major disruption after the incident on Thursday afternoon, with trains in the Greater Manchester area, the Midlands and the north-west of England most affected.
A spokesperson said: “This is expected to cause major disruption until the end of the day. If you’re travelling with Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern, Northern, TransPennine Express, or Transport for Wales in the affected area your train may be cancelled, delayed, or revised.
“Please allow extra time to make your journey this afternoon as you may need to use an alternative route or change trains part-way through to reach your destination.”
Trains were stopped after a power cut just before 2pm in the Greater Manchester area where the Manchester Rail Operating Centre is located. An emergency generator did not start in time to maintain signalling operations.
Although power has been restored, safety protocols required a controlled restart of the systems at the centre. Trains are beginning to run but Network Rail said disruption would continue to affect any services running through the region.
Chris Wright, the north-west route director at National Rail, said: “We’re sorry to passengers impacted by a power issues in Manchester which is causing significant delays to trains through the city. While some services are now running major disruption is expected for the rest of the day. I’d urge anyone planning to travel to check National Rail enquiries for the latest information.”
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Passengers travelling within Greater Manchester have been told they can use any Bee Network bus or Metrolink service at no extra cost.
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