HS2’s chief executive Mark Thurston has quit after more than six years in charge of the high-speed railway project.
He will step down from the £617,000-a-year role in September, saying “someone else” should take over as the project enters another “defining period”.
Thurston’s departure follows a report from parliament’s public accounts committee last week, which was critical about the plans for HS2’s London Euston terminus.
MPs said the government “does not know what it is trying to achieve” with the station after its construction was suspended in March at an additional cost of £200m.
Thurston’s resignation comes with phase one of the project between London and Birmingham at peak construction, with work taking place at more than 350 sites.
HS2 was originally scheduled to open in 2026, but this has been delayed to between 2029 and 2033. A budget of £55.7bn for the whole project was set in 2015 but the current cost, now excluding the eastern leg, is estimated at between £53bn and £61bn, at 2019 prices.
Sir Jon Thompson, HS2’s chairman, will become executive chairman for an interim period while a new boss is recruited.
