The £99bn railway

Whitehall tsar wants £43billion extra to boost £56billion HS2

It’S already due to cost taxpayers £56billion – and few believe the final bill won’t be a lot higher.

Now it seems that HS2 – the highspeed rail route being built to connect the North and Midlands with London – will need an extra £43billion to ‘make the most’ of project.

Sir John Armitt, the Government’s infrastructure tsar, said the cash should be invested in transport links outside London before the schedule opening of HS2 in 2026.

Without it the taxpayer-funded project – the most expensive in UK history – will fail passengers once they reach their less well connected destinations, he said.

Sir John, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, insisted: ‘We cannot simply construct a new highspeed rail line and leave it at that.

‘to get the biggest bang for our buck we need to think about the whole journey that passengers will take.

‘Once people reach the end of their HS2 journey and travel into the city they are visiting, on current form they would in many cases face inadequate public transport links and congestion on the roads as they try to get from A to B.

‘Alongside investment in rail links across the country, we need to better fund improvements to transport within our cities.’ Sir John told the Sunday telbudget, egraph that the money should be provided by ministers on top of investment for two major rail projects – Northern Powerhouse Rail, linking cities in the North, and London’s Crossrail 2.

Concerns have previously been raised about the cost of HS2. One Cabinet Office assessment said the £56billion budget was ‘highly likely’ to over-run by 60 per cent, exceeding £ 80billion. Another expert, Michael Byng, warned the first phase, from London to Birmingham, which has a £24.3billion would in reality cost £51.25billion – and that the entire scheme could top £100billion. this was vigorously denied by transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

the first phase of HS2 is due to be completed in eight years. Phase 2B will link Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester while Phase 2A will link Manchester and Crewe and will be completed by 2033.

Last week it emerged that £4.1billion had already been spent on the line before construction had even started. HS2 Limited – the company formed by the Government to run the project – has also been criticised for failing to communicate its plans to local residents properly and for dragging its heels paying compensation to those whose homes and land have already been compulsory purchased.

tory MP Dame Cheryl Gillan, the former Welsh secretary who campaigned against HS2, called for the Government to review the project because of spiralling costs. She said: ‘One of the major problems has always been that the connectivity is not there. But I don’t think anybody expected it to be twice the cost. this is money that wouldn’t be going into schools, the Health Service and making the existing railway system efficient and effective.

‘It’s time for the Government to re- evaluate from top to bottom whether this project is value for money for the taxpayer.’ A spokesman for HS2 insisted the project remained on track and budget.

the Department for transport said the Government had committed more than £13billion for transport in the North by 2020.

A spokesman said: ‘We are keeping a tough grip on costs. HS2 will become the backbone of our national rail network – creating more seats for passengers, supporting growth and regeneration, and helping us build an economy that works for everyone.’