HS2 and the high costs of high-speed rail | Maersk using AV trucks in Texas | World's first EV charging investment fund
infrastruttura
no. 37
The UK's decision to cancel the northern leg of its HS2 high-speed rail system between Manchester and Birmingham brings fresh scrutiny on the escalating construction costs of mega-projects.
It's also a good opportunity to consider those metrics in comparison with the mega-project experience in the US, which faces many of the same issues plaguing large infrastructure projects in the UK.
But first some background: HS2 dates from 2009 and is the brainchild of former prime minister Gordon Brown, who promised to connect the deindustrializing north of England with London and the booming south with a £20B high-speed rail system. Today, costs have increased to £100B, with the leg between London and Birmingham topping £400M per mile (in France, similar high-speed rail costs just £50M per mile). Canceling the northern leg will free up £10B that the UK plans to spend on improving east-west rail connections and road infrastructure across the north (including the Northern Powerhouse Rail link).
Critics of HS2 point to the UK's poor track record of delivering mega-projects in the rail sector, including Crossrail in London (years late and billions over budget) and the Edinburgh tram system (7 years late and double the initial budget). According to the Britain Remade initiative, it is now 2.5 times more expensive per mile to build new rail in the UK than in France.
For underground rail, the UK is twice as expensive as in Italy, three times as expensive as in Germany, and six times as expensive than in Spain. (A similar report from the Eno Center for Transportation found the US at the top of a per-mile tunneled cost list with Italy near the bottom, with the US paying 48% more per-mile for at-grade transit and 57% more below grade.)