HS2’s supporters fear cancellations and delays as austerity looms

theguardian.com:

At first glance, the scarred earth in central Birmingham where HS2’s future Midlands terminus will stand has not changed greatly since 2018. Back then, before another Tory party conference, transport secretary Chris Grayling donned a hard hat to affirm that work was up and running, in front of bulldozers specially hauled in for a Sunday shift.

Now, with the government set on fresh spending cuts, the vast outlay on the high-speed rail line has been called into question again as inflation bites. Facts on the ground will matter once more – and while the sweeping viaduct and new station at Birmingham’s Curzon Street exist only in CGI form above ground, foundations have been laid beneath.

Millions of cubic metres of earth have been shifted, and 20-metre-long reinforced concrete piles have been capped with cages formed of increasingly expensive British steel poles, filled with ever-pricier concrete.

These will support giant V-shaped piers which will prop up an 800-metre viaduct. Feats of engineering lie ahead: two 100-metre-plus sections, with steel girders and concrete decks, will be pre-formed and launched over the Digbeth canal. New contractors will then build the arched glass station adjoining the historic stone Curzon Street building, to welcome HS2’s high-speed trains by the end of the decade.

That, at least, is the plan – reaffirmed in principle by some, though not all, ministers last week. Other voices, however, have wondered quite where the project will end up.

Cost is the obvious concern, with rampant inflation in an energy-intensive industry adding to the perennial debate over an estimated £100bn-plus scheme. The growth plan published last month in the chancellor’s mini-budget promised to press ahead with big