“HS2 has made Britain a laughing stock in terms of its ability to deliver big infrastructure projects, and it has to end. This will set out the way we will do that,” a source told the PA news agency.
Infrastructure is not “the new rock ‘n’ roll”. However, if it were, then with a seminal project management playlist ranging from Heathrow Terminal 5, via the Olympic Park and Crossrail, on perhaps towards Thames Tideway Tunnel and the HS2 high-speed rail link, the best of British is fast becoming a greatest hits for the 21st century.
Recent project history has placed Britain in a unique position of global influence, according to Professor Andrew Davies at University College London’s Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. “Over the past decade or so, the UK has transformed the way megaprojects are delivered, moving away from a world of fixed-price contracts, risk transfer, lowest-cost tendering and adversarial relationships,” he says.
For Professor Davies, who specialises in the management of projects, the market has witnessed the emergence of a “flexible megaproject delivery model”, initiated by Heathrow’s T5.
“The UK has created an institutional environment for delivering megaprojects in a radically new way. The United States and many European countries are watching and learning,” he says.
I’m not entirely convinced that either the “everyone is sitting in awe at the feet of the master” or the “we’re a global laughingstock” statements about HS2 are quite true.
Terminal 5 was an absolute masterclass in how to deliver a megaproject.
HS2 is, unfortunately, just another magnitude of complexity. Some of it avoidable, some of it was going to be a pain no matter how much was planned.
It also doesn’t help that HS2 got massively underestimated to get political approval and shovels in the ground. (The flipside being, if it had gone with realistic estimates, it could well have been stuck in committee for until 2050)
Definitely not, lol. Nearby countries with fast rail - France, Spain, Germany - would perhaps give a slight bemused smile in the direction of HS2. Those are big countries where high-speed rail makes actual sense - as just one example, from the German town of Karlsruhe right by the border with France, you can take a TGV to Lyon, about 350 miles away. It takes around 5 hours and will probably cost you less than €100.
However all those countries are all too familiar with their own governments mismanaging public works. So they wouldn’t be shocked at the huge sacks of cash that are being tipped into great holes in the ground, and any laughter would be at the idea that this ridiculously unnecessary governmental vanity project is even being built at all.
Ten years back:
https://www.raconteur.net/project-management-2015/britains-most-successful-megaprojects
I’m not entirely convinced that either the “everyone is sitting in awe at the feet of the master” or the “we’re a global laughingstock” statements about HS2 are quite true.
Terminal 5 was an absolute masterclass in how to deliver a megaproject.
HS2 is, unfortunately, just another magnitude of complexity. Some of it avoidable, some of it was going to be a pain no matter how much was planned.
It also doesn’t help that HS2 got massively underestimated to get political approval and shovels in the ground. (The flipside being, if it had gone with realistic estimates, it could well have been stuck in committee for until 2050)
Definitely not, lol. Nearby countries with fast rail - France, Spain, Germany - would perhaps give a slight bemused smile in the direction of HS2. Those are big countries where high-speed rail makes actual sense - as just one example, from the German town of Karlsruhe right by the border with France, you can take a TGV to Lyon, about 350 miles away. It takes around 5 hours and will probably cost you less than €100.
However all those countries are all too familiar with their own governments mismanaging public works. So they wouldn’t be shocked at the huge sacks of cash that are being tipped into great holes in the ground, and any laughter would be at the idea that this ridiculously unnecessary governmental vanity project is even being built at all.