Government 'doesn't know how much HS2 will cost' after Manchester rail link axed

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The Government does not know how much HS2 rail will cost in total, MPs have been told. The top civil servant at the Department for Transport, Dame Bernadette Kelly, told the Commons Public Accounts Committee on Thursday they don't have an 'agreed cost estimate' for phase one of the stuttering project between London and Birmingham.

HS2 Ltd has provided a cost estimate of £54-66 billion, in 2019 prices, but Dame Bernadette said the department did not 'regard it as a reliable and agreed cost estimate'.

She said: "I say with great regret, sitting before the committee, that is the situation." Dame Bernadette added that coming up with an agreed cost estimate would be 'extremely complex' and would not be done until 'well into 2025'.

Summing up the evidence session, committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: "We don’t know when the reset is going to take place, we don't know what the cost is going to be, and we don’t know when it is likely to come into operation." The high-speed line was supposed to reach Manchester, until the second phase of the scheme was cancelled by the Conservative government last year.