HS2 high speed two works at Birmingham Curzon St, railway station, Central Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK, B4 7XG

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line and network of passenger train services in England. It will consist of a new railway line between the West Midlands and London, with a branch to Birmingham, and a network of train services that will use the new line and existing conventional track to reach their destinations in the Midlands, Northern England, and Scotland. HS2 will be Britain's second purpose-built high-speed line, the first being High Speed 1, which connects London to the Channel Tunnel. The majority of the project is planned to be completed between 2029 and 2033. A 2019 review of the project, as then planned, estimated that it would cost up to £87 billion; however, this is estimated to have risen to approximately £100 billion in 2023. The new line will run between London Euston railway station and Fradley in southern Staffordshire, with stations at Old Oak Common, in northwest London, and Birmingham Interchange, near Solihull. There will be spurs to a planned station in central Birmingham and a junction with the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Handsacre, near Lichfield. The rolling stock will run at a maximum speed of 360 km/h (225 mph) and will operate on both HS2 track and existing conventional track On 4 October 2023 the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Phase 2 would be abandoned and that responsibility for the Euston connection would be removed from HS2 Ltd