When Will HS2 Birmingham To London Stretch Be Finished After East ...

When will HS2 Birmingham to London stretch be finished after East Midlands link scrapped

HS2 promised to deliver high speed rail links with much of England, but an East Midland route has now been scrapped and no concrete completion date has been given.

CommentsNewsRobbie Purves13:31, 19 Nov 2021Updated 13:32, 19 Nov 2021

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The HS2 (High Speed 2) link between the East Midlands and Leeds has been scrapped, in a move which sees the delayed and over-budget project shrink further.

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HS2 was originally meant to connect London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

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However, now the plans have shrunk, hundreds are infuriated at the disruption the project has caused without even breaking ground near them.

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Many have been forced to sell their homes and uproot their families due to proposed, but now binned HS2 routes.

Work has already begun on the project's first phase, which will link London with the West Midlands - seeing journey times from Birmingham to London reduced from one hour 21 minutes to 52 minutes.

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Instead of HS2 linkingthe East Midlands with Leeds, it will be replaced by the Integrated Rail Plan. A shorter 'high-speed' route will connect Birmingham with East Midlands Parkway, then only go as far as Sheffield.

A study in the next few years will then look at how to bring HS2 to Leeds in the coming decades.

When will HS2 be finished?

The Birmingham to London route of HS2 is now expected to be opened between 2029 and 2033, if everything goes to plan.

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It was previously due to open in 2026.

The second phase of HS2 has recently been pushed back to as late as 2040, 30 years after the project was first proposed.

READ MORE: Government decision to downgrade HS2 condemned as 'blow for people and communities of Birmingham'

Much of Europe, including Spain, France, Germany and Italy have had high-speed rail for decades.

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Meanwhile, in the 20th century, successive UK Governments actively looked to cut lines between towns and cities in a so-called 'modernisation' programme backed by the Conservative Party.

Instead, extensive motorway building projects began in the 1960s under the leadership of Transport Minister Ernest Marples, who was previously a director of a road construction company and endorsed the Beeching cuts.

It saw more than 2,300 stations close and tens of thousands of people lose their jobs.

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Much of HS2's issues today stem from decades of under-investment in the railway network.