Transport Secretary Mark Harper has announced that “inflationary pressures” will cause delays to the construction of key parts of the high-speed railway HS2.
In a written ministerial statement, Harper said the Birmingham to Crewe line will be delayed by two years and the final stretch from Old Oak Common in west London to Euston in central London will not be ready until some time in the 2040s.
The priority will be the section from Old Oak Common to Birmingham’s Curzon Street station, but plans for the next part—from England’s second city north to the key railway junction town of Crewe—has been delayed….