HS2 could become a little less high-speed to save on time and costs

The background might not be quite as blurry after today’s announcement (Picture: HS2)

Plans to make HS2 the fastest regular passenger rail service on the planet could be scrapped to save time and costs on the massively overrunning project.

Cutting the top speed of the trains by around 40km per hour could save billions of pounds with a ‘negligible impact on journey times’, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has provided two options for speed reductions on the route...