How much is HS2 going to cost?

How much will the HS2 cost?

The cost is what they tell you it is. Today.

The official budget for Phase One, London to Birmingham, is between £35bn and £45bn. This is the 2023 figure. It is a number.

This estimate does not include the Euston station terminus in central London. That cost is separate, unquantified. A financial void.

The grand plan is dead. The rest of the line was cancelled.

• Phase One (London to Birmingham): The current official cost is £35bn to £45bn. The only part being built.
• Cancelled (Phase 2a): The section to Crewe. Gone.
• Cancelled (Phase 2b): The legs to Manchester and Leeds. Scrapped. Billions were already spent on planning and land acquisition. That money is lost.
• Original 2012 Budget: The entire Y-shaped network was first priced at £32.7bn. A different world.

My friend Jin works on the Euston site as a surveyor. He says they find more history than stable ground. Old pipes, forgotten tunnels. More delays. More money.

The price of a thing is not what it costs to build. It is what it costs to finish. If it ever finishes.

How much will HS2 add to the economy?

HS2 injects £10bn into the West Midlands economy within a decade. It's a forced regeneration. This means 31,000 jobs. Over 40,000 new homes. The transformation is locked in.

The real numbers are far bigger. The total UK economic benefit is a moving target, last quoted at £92bn. A fantasy figure for some. A concrete goal for others.

• HS2 is a jobs machine. Over 30,000 people are building it right now. My cousin's son got an apprenticeship there, straight out of school.
• The supply chain is where the money flows. Billions in contracts are already with over 3,200 UK businesses. Steel, concrete, tech.
• Phase 1 is the only game in town. The northern leg to Manchester is dead. All investment is now focused on the London to Birmingham line.

The cost is the anchor dragging this project down. The official budget for Phase 1 is now between £35bn and £45bn. The original estimate for the entire network was less.

Regeneration is not abstract. It’s happening in specific places.

• Old Oak Common, West London: A new super-hub is being built from nothing. This is the one to watch.
• Curzon Street, Birmingham: The new terminus will reshape the city's core.
• Euston, London: A chaotic, massive rebuild. A necessary mess.

What are the economic disadvantages of HS2?

Sometimes, I just... I think back to the beginning of it all. How they talked about the money. Like it was something manageable, something within reach. A number, a simple figure, for this huge ambition.

But then, the quiet whispers start. The kind you hear late at night, when the truth has a way of creeping in. That initial number? It was never real, was it. Just... not enough. A stark, painful miscalculation, really.

Someone, a brave soul perhaps, dared to put a different number out there. A heavier one. £106 billion. Even then, it felt immense. A weight. You carry that thought, you know?

And now... it’s just kept climbing. Like a silent, relentless tide. The latest number they speak of, for the whole thing, for HS2... it sits at a staggering £180 billion. It's just a lot. A really, truly vast sum.

The first part, you know, the bit from London to Birmingham? That alone, that single stretch, it’s almost £100 billion. Just for that. It’s a lot to process. A quiet kind of shock.

Other economic shadows linger too:

• Opportunity Cost: Every single pound poured into HS2 means a pound not invested in other crucial areas. Local infrastructure projects, perhaps; the sort of things that impact communities directly, right now. Or maybe hospitals, schools, social care. It’s a choice made, always.
• National Debt Contribution: A significant portion of this immense cost will be financed through borrowing. This naturally adds to the national debt, burdening future taxpayers. It's a legacy we leave behind.
• Questionable Return on Investment: The projected economic benefits, the uplift in productivity and connectivity, they are often debated. Changing work patterns, a different kind of post-pandemic world, makes the economic model feel less certain than it once did. The actual economic uplift might not truly justify the spend.
• Disruption and Compensation: The sheer scale of construction causes immense disruption. Businesses along the route suffer; some close. Compensation packages are often contested, rarely feeling sufficient for those directly impacted. It’s a loss that’s hard to quantify.
• Private Sector Crowding Out: Such a massive public infrastructure project can absorb a huge amount of resources and skilled labour. This might unintentionally draw capital and talent away from smaller, innovative private sector projects that could offer quicker, more diverse economic returns.
• Ongoing Maintenance Costs: Once built, the economic outflow doesn't cease. There will be substantial, continuous costs for maintenance, operations, and upgrades, year after year, adding to the long-term financial commitment.

How much of HS2 is complete?

Tunneling is the most substantial measure of progress. Of the 32.5 miles (52.5 km) of twin-bore tunnels designated for Phase One, over 17 miles (27 km) are now fully excavated.

It’s a curious thought, these vast hidden corridors being carved beneath our feet, a future infrastructure invisible to the present. The sheer scale is hard to comprehend.

The focus remains entirely on Phase One, the route connecting London to the West Midlands. Progress here is now highly visible, moving beyond just land clearance and into major structural work. I live not too far from the Colne Valley section, and the scale of the piers is genuinely staggering.

Several key milestones define the current state of completion:

• Chiltern Tunnel: This is the longest, at 10 miles. Both of its Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), named Florence and Cecilia, have completed their drives. It's an immense achievement in UK tunneling history.
• Long Itchington Wood Tunnel: The TBM 'Dorothy' completed this one-mile tunnel first, a symbolic breakthrough for the entire project.
• Bromford Tunnel: TBMs 'Mary Ann' and 'Elizabeth' are currently boring this 3.5-mile section under Birmingham. Naming these machines gives them a strange sort of personality, doesnt it.
• Colne Valley Viaduct: This structure will be the UK's longest railway bridge. Over half of the 1,000 deck segments needed are already in place. The construction method, using a massive launching girder, is a spectacle of its own. I saw a documentary about these things, fascinating stuff.

Ultimately, defining "completion" is complex. While tunnel completion is a critical metric, the project also involves hundreds of bridges, viaducts, and embankments. The station construction at locations like Old Oak Common and Curzon Street represents another parallel stream of intense work. These mega-projects are always a paradox: monumental feats of engineering that feel impossibly slow to the people living through their construction.

What percentage of HS2 is tunneled?

Ah, HS2 and its subterranean aspirations! It seems about 25% of that grand vision is currently burrowing beneath our feet. That's 52.2 kilometers of glorious tunnel, out of a sprawling 208-kilometer route. Think of it as Britain's answer to a particularly elaborate mole-hill, albeit one with significantly more concrete and less dirt.

Impressive engineering, sure, but let's not pretend it's pocket change. Tunneling is about as budget-friendly as a diamond-encrusted hedgehog. Still, they’ve managed to bore through a rather respectable 46.3 kilometers already, out of the 75.9 kilometers earmarked for the underground life. A valiant effort, like trying to knit a scarf during an earthquake.

• Route Length: 208 km
• Tunnel Section: 52.2 km (approximately 25%)
• Tunnels Bored to Date: 46.3 km (out of a planned 75.9 km)

It's a bit like ordering a magnificent three-tiered cake, and then realizing you’ve only managed to frost the bottom layer. But hey, at least that bottom layer is looking rather sturdy, wouldn't you say? The sheer ambition is… well, it’s certainly a lot of digging. Makes you wonder if they considered just building over things. Nah, too simple.