Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
The high-speed railway project HS2 in the UK may see its trains operating at slower speeds than originally intended as a measure to reduce escalating costs. The government has instructed the company responsible for constructing the line between London and Birmingham to evaluate the possibility of lowering the trains’ speeds amid ongoing delays and significant budget overruns.
It was anticipated that HS2’s chief executive, Mark Wild, would reveal this month that the project’s completion date would be pushed beyond the current target of 2033, with expenses exceeding £100 billion in today’s terms. However, this formal update has been postponed until after the upcoming May elections. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is reportedly reviewing all possible avenues to recover both time and money for taxpayers, with one option on the table being a reduced initial operating speed for the high-speed trains.
Originally, HS2 has been designed to accommodate trains running up to 360 km/h (224 mph), surpassing the speed of any other conventional railway worldwide. For comparison, most existing high-speed trains in the UK function at speeds up to 200 km/h (125 mph), while those on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (HS1) can reach 300 km/h. Testing the HS2 trains at their full intended speed would require either completion of a specialized test track or the entire railway line itself. This necessity could cause delays of several years and add billions of pounds to the overall cost. As an alternative, there have been suggestions to test the trains in China on existing high-speed tracks.
The government has expressed strong criticism of decisions made by past administrations regarding HS2. Last year, the Transport Secretary labeled the project as “an appalling mess.” Mark Wild, who formerly served as chief executive of Crossrail, was appointed to lead HS2 in May 2024 under the previous government. Since then, he has devoted over a year to a “reset” of the project, aimed at establishing a more realistic timeline and budget. Although substantial infrastructure such as tunnels and bridges has already been constructed along the route, the rail line remains several years from completion. Initially envisioned to link London all the way to Leeds and Manchester, the sections north of Birmingham have now been cancelled. Under the current plans, HS2 trains will continue to run from Birmingham to Manchester but at reduced speeds along the existing West Coast Main Line
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.