Is it time to hold a public enquiry into what has gone on with HS2.
The costs have spiralled uncontrollably, even as the overall scale of the project has been cut back and back.
Looking at other countries with high speed rail projects, the cost per km in the UK is a massive massive outlier.
For simple rural flat terrain it typically costs 11-20 M £ per km to construct
More urban terrain or needing a lot of interactions with existing infrastructure costs typically 43-61 M£/km
And very complex landscape requiring a high percentage of the route to be in tunnels and viaducts can cost typically 72 - 93 M£/KM.
This is looking at a range of countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
What is HS2 costing us?
Th latest estimates put it at over 400 M£/km - how can it be so expensive here? like 10x more expensive than building it in France?
My first thought was that maybe the price of purchasing the land was very high in the route it has to take, but apparently not - the land purchases only account for a very small percentage of the total budget.
Where on earth has all the money gone?
