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HS2 'will be most expensive railway on Earth at £403m a mile'

   First 6.6 miles from Euston to Old Oak Common could cost more than £8bn
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     *

   HS2’s first phase between London and Birmingham will cost almost £48bn
   ( PA )

   Britain’s new high-speed rail line will be the most expensive railway
   in the world with costs per mile expected to reach £403m, according to
   Government calculations.

   The HS2’s first phase between London and Birmingham will cost almost
   £48bn, according to expert analysis commissioned by the Department for
   Transport (DfT).
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Read more

     * Philip Hammond gets cost of HS2 wrong by £20bn
     * Major engineering firm pulls out of £170m HS2 contract
     * HS2 will bypass key towns and cities
     * HS2 won't improve Government's poor record on infrastructure

   The scheme could cost up to £104bn in total, including extensions to
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   was an “ever-deepening bottomless pit”.

   “HS2 has not questioned the figure, or my methodology, nor have they
   come up with any structured estimate of their own,” Mr Byng told the
   Sunday Times.
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   “Michael Hurn, the project sponsor at the DfT, is a very good guy and
   is very worried at the advice he’s been given [by HS2]. The big
   contractors are also worried. They’ve said when they submit a bid it’s
   nowhere near [as low as] the estimates that HS2 have got for the job.”

   HS2 said it “did not recognise” Mr Byng’s figure and was “confident we
   will deliver the project on time and on budget”.

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   £20bn in a radio interview.

   Mr Hammond said HS2 will cost the taxpayer £32bn, when in fact it is
   expected to cost more than £52bn.

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   The project has also been mired in delays and complications. The
   engineering firm that was handed the multimillion-pound contract to
   develop HS2 pulled out of the project less than two months after it was
   selected to complete the work.

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   But in March, CH2M said it had decided to withdraw its interest,
   following what it called “continuing discussions” between HS2 and CH2M
   over the award of the contract.
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