Work to connect HS2 to the west coast mainline will be deferred for another four years as part of a “reset” of the troubled high-speed rail project.
The work between Birmingham and Handsacre in Staffordshire was originally halted in early 2023 by the previous government to limit spending on HS2.
The decision to extend the pause means cities in northern parts of the country will have a long wait for even the secondary benefits of HS2, after construction of the planned remaining leg of the railway north of Birmingham was scrapped in 2023.
The connection will eventually cut 25 minutes from journeys between London, Liverpool, Manchester and beyond, using new high-speed trains and track as well as the existing mainline.
The chief executive of HS2, Mark Wild, who has embarked on a reset of the programme’s work schedule and contracts, has decided to extend the pause on the 18-mile stretch north of Birmingham.
In a letter to the leader of Staffordshire county council, reported by the Financial Times, he said he realised the “information would be disappointing” and HS2 remained fully committed to completing the link to Handsacre.
Wild was appointed to get a grip on a rail project whose costs have escalated massively since the Covid pandemic. The final bill is now expected to exceed £80bn despite HS2 being truncated to just London to Birmingham, from its original Y-shaped route incorporating Manchester and Leeds.
The government announced in the summer, after Wild’s advice, that the first HS2 services – running slightly slower and starting at an Old Oak Common terminus in west London, rather than at Euston station – would be delayed to beyond 2033.
Plans for London Euston are yet to be finalised and rail industry leaders have warned that capacity constraints on the west coast mainline could mean having HS2 trains joining the network worsens existing services. It is understood that the latest deferral was partly needed to allow fuller consideration of how the challenges of running full services between central London and the north could be met.
A spokesperson for HS2 said: “Mark Wild, our CEO, has been clear that HS2 faces serious cost and schedule challenges. We are resetting the project to get it back on track and address the mistakes of the past.
“To support the reset, we are extending an existing deferral on works between Birmingham and Handsacre, where the new railway links with the west coast mainline. This will prioritise efforts and resources on the opening section of HS2 between Old Oak Common and Birmingham, getting the construction programme back in the right order.
“We remain fully committed to completing the 18-mile stretch north of Birmingham and some essential construction in this area will continue. But this pause will mean that the benefits of HS2 are felt by passengers and businesses as quickly as possible while protecting the use of taxpayers’ money.”
The news will compound fears in northern England that its cities are being shortchanged again in transport decisions. In 2023 the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said money saved on cutting back HS2 should go to northern railway projects but no funding was confirmed. An announcement on Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) promised within weeks of the government’s 2025 spending review in June has yet to materialise.
Leaders from Yorkshire gathered in parliament on Wednesday to step up calls on the government for an upgrade of the Sheffield-Leeds line – a route that was once part of a north-eastern leg of HS2. Upgrades including electrification and station expansion form part of the provisional NPR plan but uncertainty remains.
City council leaders and metro mayors urged the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to prioritise the link. Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “We deserve far better than the creaking and unreliable rail network we currently have serving the two great cities of Leeds and Sheffield.”
