High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) is facing yet another hike in its estimated price tag as inflation continues to bite the project.
Likely to be lifted from a previously tipped £70 billion, the cost of the rapid link between London and the Midlands could rise to as much as £91 billion when the latest calculations are made in the coming year, according to the Financial Times.
Though the figure is an estimate, it would mark the latest turn in the saga that has built around HS2.
The line had originally been due to connect London and northern cities, including Manchester.
However, the latest speculation is that development of the new line will halt at Birmingham, with ministers refusing to guarantee it will be built any further.
“Rishi [Sunak] is someone who is very money-focused and I don’t think he is remotely happy with the amount being spent on the project for the return,” a source close to the prime minister told the FT.
Given costs look to only be growing, having originally been estimated at £37.5 billion in 2009, all eyes will be on the Treasury’s next calculations for HS2, expected next year.
Though pressure remains on the government over the growing price tag of the railway, larger-than-expected costs are nothing new.
Environmental, safety and security issues plagued development of the Channel Tunnel, for instance, whose costs came to the equivalent of around £14 billion, based on today’s prices - some 80% higher than originally anticipated in 1985.
Various other civil engineering projects have also been hit by unexpectedly high costs, such as Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel project, which at US$11 billion in 2007, overran by 275%.
How much HS2 will ultimately come to remains to be seen, with a spokesperson pointing out the complexity of the project given its “thousands of variables”.