Birmingham HS2 station will be completed with four unused platforms

Birmingham will be left with a vast ‘white elephant’ station after Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap large parts of the HS2 project.

Sunak announced in October that the second phase of the project, which would connect Birmingham and the north of England, would be cancelled.

However, work on Birmingham’s new seven-platform Curzon Street station had progressed so far that it was decided it would be cheaper to continue as originally planned than scale back the scheme.

Construction of four viaducts was already underway to serve the station when Sunak announced its decision to abandon phase two of HS2.

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A National Audit Office (NAO) report said the Department for Transport (DfT) operated on the “general principle that it will stop work no longer required for the first stage unless it would cost more to do this thing”.

According to the revised plans, only three