HS2 up to three years behind schedule, campaigners claim

Construction of the controversial HS2 rail line is up to three years behind schedule, campaigners claim.

The Telegraph can disclose that the firm behind the £56 billion project has yet to begin work on large sections of the proposed track where building was was initially due to begin as early as 2016.

In one case, a water sports centre responsible for a lake west of London has been told it will not have to vacate the site until 2019 or 2020 to allow the construction of a new viaduct, having previously been informed that work would begin in 2016.

Construction of another section of the line in Warwickshire has been suspended until at least “late 2020”, with council officials stating that even that timetable is “subject to change”. 

The cases are among a litany of examples collected by campaigners where the construction of specific parts of the line, including bridges and tunnels, appears significantly behind a timetable submitted to Parliament in 2013 as part of the project's formal environmental statement, before MPs backed the line.

The document stated that the first phase of the route, between London and Birmingham, is due to open to passengers in 2026 - a claim HS2 maintains today.

The disclosures come amid a growing political row over the cost of the line. Last week The Telegraph disclosed that Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, told the cabinet that HS2 represented poor value for money and the funding would be better spent elsewhere. Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, also called for the project to be scrapped.

HS2 Ltd insists the 2013 timetable, submitted as part of a detailed report on the environmental impact of the scheme, was only intended as an “indicative” schedule and has since been superseded by a “more detailed programme of works” which incorporates changes requested by MPs and residents, but which it declined to release. It says work is underway on 60 sites between London and Birmingham.

But campaigners said the apparent inaction on many sites due for development by now under the 2013 schedule cast doubt on the insistence by HS2 Ltd and ministers that the project is "on time".

Joe Rukin, campaign manager of Stop HS2, the pressure group, said: "HS2 is clearly three years late."

"Advance works" on a major viaduct in the Colne Valley area of Hillingdon, west of London, have yet to be started two years after they were due to begin, in the summer of 2016.

Hillingdon Outdoor Activities Centre, which organises watersports on the lake that will be spanned by the viaduct, has told members that it has reached an agreement that it will only now move in 2019 or 2020. It had originally been given until March 2018 to leave the site, with construction due to begin shortly after, but asked to stay longer because its new site is "not yet ready".

Separately, work on a bridge over the A46 in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, is now not due to begin until 2020, after the construction of a new roundabout.

"The Stoneleigh A46 roundabout upgrade is intended for completion before HS2 starts work in the vicinity," council officials told campaigners last week.

"The roundabout works are due to start in April and finish in late 2020." 

HS2 managers are understood to maintain that the delay will not affect the overall timetable for the project.

According to the 2013 timetable, construction of the bridge was due to have started in the first quarter of 2018 and completed by the second quarter of 2019. 

In another case construction on more than a dozen sections of the line between South Ruislip and Ickenham, west of London, has yet to begin, 22 months on from when the first works  were originally due to have been completed.

An HS2 Ltd spokesman said: “The 2013 environmental statement is not a programme of construction works and to confuse the two is wrong and misleading. Following public consultation and parliamentary process, and the appointment of early works contractors, the more detailed programme of works was developed. 

"HS2 remains on track with construction works well underway on 60 sites across the route from London to Birmingham, with over 7,000 jobs supported by the programme across the country on our way to 30,000 jobs at peak construction.”