“Gold plating” HS2, including by focusing on achieving the “highest possible speeds” for the railway, are among the faults which contributed to the project’s woes, a major review is expected to find.
Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the former national security adviser, will criticise the “original sins” in the decision-making behind the multibillion-pound rail project in a report due to be published this week.
The review comes as Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander will set out new costs and a timetable for the stripped back version of HS2, which is still being built between London and Birmingham.
In March, she tasked the new CEO of HS2, Mark Wild, with finding ways to save the taxpayer cash and speed up construction time, including by reducing the speed of trains.
HS2 was originally designed to run at 360km per hour, faster than any trains in the world. Ministers are now considering reducing this to 320km per hour as part of steps to build it out faster.
In his review of the project, Sir Stephen is expected to list “the original sins of the scheme”, including “the original ‘gold plating’ of the high-speed concept, with a focus on the highest possible speeds, resulting in bespoke and highly engineered design”.
He will also hit out at “the decision to begin construction at the hardest points of the route” between London and the Midlands.
“Changing objectives and political priorities”, as well as the level of costs and risk “being very badly underestimated” are also set to come under fire in the report.
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.
“Britain has the talent and capability to build big infrastructure projects. The Transport Secretary will harness that as she turns the project around.”
