The floundering project to build what is left of HS2 is expected to be described to MPs as a ‘litany of failure’. The results of two reviews of the scheme may also be published today.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander is reported to be preparing to announce another delay to the opening of the high speed line between London and Birmingham, potentially it taking back to 2035 at least. She is expected to admit in the House of Commons that there is ‘no reasonable way’ to keep to the present schedule and budget.

She is also expected to name Mike Brown, a former London transport commissioner, as the new chair of HS2 Ltd.

One of the reviews has been prepared by HS2 chief executive Mark Wild, who was appointed last year and then told MPs in December that the project needs a ‘fundamental reset’.

He warned the Public Accounts Committee that HS2 had ‘systemic and enduring problems’. These included contracts that passed the risk to HS2 Ltd rather than the supply chain companies.

The other review sets out the findings of research conducted by James Stewart, a former chairman of infrastructure at management consultant KPMG. He was commissioned last year to ‘investigate the oversight of major transport infrastructure projects’.

A new and recent problem for HS2 Ltd has been allegations that sub-contracted companies supplying staff had overcharged for their services by billing HS2 for employees rather than freelance workers.

HS2 had originally been intended to run from London and divide into two legs in the west Midlands. The eastern leg would have continued through the east Midlands to Sheffield and Leeds, while the western line would have served Crewe and Manchester.

Both the Leeds and Manchester lines have since been scrapped, and the surviving section is from a new Birmingham station at Curzon Street, running via Birmingham Interchange (near Birmingham International) and Old Oak Common, to terminate at London Euston.

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