Grant Shapps denies DfT talks with China over HS2 contract The transport secretary Grant Shapps has today denied reports his department has held talks with China over building the HS2 rail link. The Financial Times reported China’s state-run railway company had offered to build the line in five years at significantly reduced cost. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in parliament that the scheme would go [...]
Shares of HS2 contractors Balfour Beatty, Kier, Costain surge on green light HS2 contractors' shares surge after project gets go-ahead Shares in British construction giants rose today after Prime Minister Boris Johnson opted to press ahead with the controversial HS2 rail project. The PM had been under pressure from some in his party to scrap the project after its estimated cost rose to £106bn. But today he gave the infrastructure scheme the green light, telling [...]
HS2 would drive rail price increase and shut out smaller northern cities: ASI HS2 (High Speed Rail 2) will lead to increased ticket prices and reduce train access for smaller Northern cities, according to a new study from a leading London think tank. The Adam Smith Institute’s Don’t Railroad it Through report slams the “politically motivated” project and outlines a number of alternatives it says will be cheaper [...]
Grayling slammed for ‘trainwreck’ HS2 payout to Heathrow Airport July 14, 2019 Transport secretary Chris Grayling has again come under fire after giving Heathrow airport £9m to prepare for High Speed 2, despite uncertainty over the railway will go ahead. The Department for Transport (DfT) has preemptively committed to handing Britain’s biggest airport the money as compensation for knocking down a rail depot at Old Oak Common [...]
HS2 Birmingham: The £435m station nobody wants to build July 11, 2019 HS2 has abandoned its initial hunt for a contractor to build its Birmingham station, after firms were unwilling to take on the risks associated with the £435m job. The railway said it will rethink the procurement process for its Curzon Street station so as to reduce contractor risk and increase competition. Read more: Business leaders [...]
Cost overruns mean London may suck up benefits of HS2 and short-change the north, Lords warn May 16, 2019 London risks reaping all the rewards from HS2, leaving the north "short-changed", a stinging House of Lords report has warned today. The costs of the £56bn railway "do not appear to be under control" and the government must find ways to reduce them so that the second phase of the railway, based in the north, definitely gets built, [...]
HS2 station contracts worth £2.56bn awarded to Mace, Balfour Beatty and Vinci February 6, 2019 HS2 has tasked construction firms Mace, Balfour Beatty and Vinci with building the project’s London terminus and west London super-hub at Old Oak Common, in deals worth £2.56bn. Mace and joint venture partner construction firm Dragados will take on the work at Euston, worth £1.65bn, in an award which will come as a blow to [...]
£10bn HS4Air project linking Heathrow and Gatwick airports ‘rejected’ by Department for Transport December 11, 2018 A £10bn project linking Heathrow and Gatwick airports, dubbed the ‘M25 for high speed trains’, has reportedly been rejected by the government. The scheme, called HS4Air, would have linked the High Speed 1 (HS1) and High Speed 2 (HS2) rail lines with Heathrow and Gatwick airports. But the New Civil Engineer today reported the Department [...]
The ultimate irony? Railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s body could be dug up thanks to HS2 July 27, 2015 He was the man who single-handedly oversaw the construction of the Great Western Railway. But now another rail line – the much-maligned HS2 – could mean the body of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel is dug up. Despite his affinity with the South West, Brunel was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery after he died aged 53 [...]
The HS2 debate is over: It’s time to embrace the benefits July 19, 2015 One of the consequences of this year’s General Election is that HS2, the high-speed line from London to the Midlands and the North, is now almost certain to happen. The immediate challenge for London business is to take advantage of the huge opportunities it provides for regeneration and development in west London, where a new [...]