HS2 is now five years into its major construction stage and based on the original baseline plan, they should have completed major railway track construction by now. However, that stage is only about 60 percent complete, putting the project two to three years behind schedule.
The bottom line is that, at the notice to proceed, the contractors could not price the risk. What we're seeing is the crystallization of risk: they should have cost 19.5bn, and we've already spent 26bn and we're just over halfway done.