The cost of Britain’s new HS2 high-speed rail project could rise to as much as £106bn, according to an official government review. Seen by the Financial Times the review says that there is “considerable risk” that the scheme’s price will possibly rise as much as 20% beyond the £81-88bn range set out in a report by the current HS2 chairman Allan Cook last September.
The review also recommends that work on phase 2 of the project, from the West Midlands to Manchester and Leeds, be paused for up to six months for a study into whether it could include a mix of conventional and high-speed lines instead.
“On balance”, it states that ministers should proceed with the project, which would stretch from London to Birmingham in its first phase and then Manchester and Leeds by 2040, this being 7 years later than the original completion date. Although the final draft of the review recommends that the project should proceed, this is subject to “a number of qualifications,” the report says.
The review also mentions that the project will need to be accompanied by investment in local transport and “transport investment alone will not rebalance the UK economy.”
Responding to the unpublished review, Dr Adam Marshall, BCC Director General, said: “Our business communities want to see HS2 delivered in full without further delay.
“This project is an investment that will transform the capacity of our railways and the potential of so many areas across the UK. While there can be no blank cheque, cutting the project back would put development and investment plans across the country at risk.”
The £106bn is the cost of the project put forward to the review by Michael Byng, an engineer who wrote the official guidelines on estimating railway costs and is a former advisor to Network Rail.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to make a decision within weeks on whether to proceed with construction of the first phase of HS2, which will be Europe’s largest infrastructure project.