Taxpayers have been swindled billions as the HS2 white elephant spirals past £100billion in what a watchdog branded a monument to catastrophic government waste.
HS2 costs have spiralled past £100billion (Image: Getty)
The Department for Transport has been accused of swindling taxpayers by pressing ahead with the High Speed Rail Two network. It comes as Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, announced plans to speed up the delivery of the HS2 program which is expected now to cost more than £100 billion.
A taxpayer watchdog branded the project a “white elephant” and warned that Britons would be “disgusted at the way they have been swindled” to fund it. Calling for the rail line to be scrapped now, John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance told the Daily Express that the cost project had “become a monument to government waste, spiralling costs and catastrophic mismanagement on an industrial scale.”
The Department for Transport has recognised that around two thirds of the increase in costs seen over the project’s lifetime are down to areas being missed from the scope of the original project plan, underestimation by previous Governments, inefficient delivery – and the remaining third due to inflation.
Ms Alexander said that she shared the anger about “the waste and mess” but was “proud that this Government has worked with HS2’s new senior team to get this project off life support and on the road to recovery.”
She added: “We will get the job done but we will also take every opportunity to save time and money in the process, getting a grip on delivery, controlling costs, and stripping out the complexity that’s plagued the project in the past.”
Alexander vows to get HS2 back on track (Image: Getty)
But the TaxPayers’ Alliance chief demanded the government “draw a line under this fiasco and consign HS2 to the dustbin of history where it belongs.
The group has consistently warned that the costs of the project will rise, and predicted the £100bn cost back in 2017.
The government says that the new plans will save billions and deliver the project more quickly, as well as delivering the same speed and service as Japanese bullet trains.