High Speed 2 Line
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of (a) the minimum, (b) the expected and (c) the maximum savings arising from reducing the design speed of HS2 from 360 km/h to 320 km/h; how those savings have been calculated; and what proportion of those savings are expected to arise from (i) infrastructure changes, (ii) signalling changes and (iii) testing requirements.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
As recently set out in the Secretary of State’s statement to the House, she accepted the recommendation to bring HS2 into line with proven leading European high-speed operating standards, including operating HS2 at up to 320 kilometres per hour (kph),supporting our endeavour to bring HS2 into operation safely at the lowest reasonable cost.
Simplifying the project will reduce overall cost and time by removing the complexity of testing at 360kph, and removes the increased risk of this complexity on cost and schedule. The initial speed review conducted by HS2 Limited has identified that the changes could save between £1 billion and £2.5 billion over the life of the construction programme, by reducing testing and commissioning time, opening earlier and with reduced costs compared to existing plan. This is an initial assessment that will mature further as the work is refined into a full programme baseline.
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