http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 43481.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This tripe has all the hall marks of a paper that's sacked all the subeditors and journalists.
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).
Hang on. Government figures? What's this then?
It comes after Chancellor Philip Hammond got the cost wrong by at least £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.
Hammond didn't make a "gaffe" actually. His figure doesn't include contingency or trains, but is the expected price of the infrastructure. So he was actually right.
But what's this £52bn (for the whole of HS2, not just the bit to Birmingham)? Government figures? Sounds very much like they are, and the £48bn just to Birmingham is a number from one bloke. Who has come up with £40bn from the edge of London to Birmingham across mostly open land. If only there was another project we could compare HS2 with. Clue is in the name. HS1 cost £80m per mile.
The project has also been mired in delays and complications.
It's not delayed. It was intended to start this year, and it will.
. 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.
The Government confirmed on 9 February that it had appointed US-based company CH2M to help develop a section of the network north of Crewe to Manchester and from the West Midlands to Yorkshire.
It's doing work north of Crewe and on the Yorkshire branch? So that starts in 2027. I think somehow we'll manage. And it didn't get "handed" anything. It had to bid for it.
What sort of politician would fall for an article like this?
Step forward! (citing it as evidence)
Natalie BennettVerified account
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#HS2 - it still doesn't add up to sense. Use money on east-west trains, local & regional services & local transport!
- By The Red Arrow