Balfour Beatty

---

The transport Secretary has asked for more data before making a "difficult decision" HS2, as it is the new high-speed Rail Link emerged £106bn.

A leaked report suggested that The Project could double the Cost of the £56bn in 2015 it is planned.

Grant shapp's said, he requested more information about the scheme, how the government is working to help you decide whether to go ahead with The Project .

in the Downing Street refused to comment on the contents of the leaked report.

Mr shapp's told Sky News that the "heavy" decision whether you need to go ahead with HS2 "" fact-based".

he said he had, said The Report 's author, Doug Oakervee: "Give me the facts, give me the data, give us The Information so that we can have a proper, informed decision. "

The unpublished report, said there was "significant risk", the estimated costs could rise by a further 20%.

"I've always approached this from a relatively neutral point of view, and to inform that The Information Will help, a decision that is best for the country as a whole," said Mr. shapp's said. "We Will have a final decision, together with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor on this very shortly," he added.

The government before the end of 2019. Along with A Warning on the Cost , The Report also made A Number of suggestions.

Among those is the recommendation to stop the Second Phase of The Project , while the experts have a look, whether conventional lines could help instead of link Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

But The Mayor of Greater Manchester , Andy Burnham , told the BBC's Today programme, it would not be "acceptable" if the North of England is part of the HS2 has been delayed or downgraded to slower speeds.

"To me, the same old story would be. London to Birmingham, money is no object, And Then all the penny pinching has finished, in the North of England," he said.

Mr Burnham said that the development of an East-west Rail route over the North , known as HS3, or the Northern engine house, Rail - based built on HS2.

But, Lord Berkeley, a vocal critic of HS2 who was the Deputy Chairman of the review prior to the withdrawal of his support, said: "I suspect that most of the people like the trains around Manchester and Leeds would prefer a really good s service is exactly as it is in London rather than to London half an hour faster. "

Some of the £8bn already mobilised on The Project , connecting London, The Midlands and the North of England with trains able to travel to 250mph.

the West Midlands ' mayor Andy Street said that he still expected to go The Project forward.

"It is the regeneration of our economies to economies in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and other cities in The Midlands and the North ," he told the BBC. "No government is committed to levelling, the Land would return under certain circumstances, the back, the Opportunity . "

HS2HS2 in numbers

£55. 6bn budget

£32. 7bnOriginal budget

£7. 4bnAlready spent on The Project

as 9,000 jobs are supported by the Rail

345 milesNew high-speed track

50 minute journey time saving between London and Manchester

source: HS2

In a letter to the Prime Minister , Boris Johnson , Some of the UK's largest construction companies, which warned that the cancellation of The Project irreparable damage "to the industry would do," Cost thousands of jobs

Balfour Beatty , Skanska, Morgan Sindall, Costain, Mace and Sir Robert McAlpine are from companies that argue that a lack of other large projects might be lost my abilities.

Claire Walker , co-executive director of policy at The British Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC that The Project must go on.

"Business communities in agreement that this project should be delivered and to be delivered in full," She Said . "There is no project that has been proposed, that Will go so far, can make all the difference in the provision of transformative changes to the Northern business communities, such as this project. "

A design proposal for a HS2 train

completed The First phase of The Project , between London and Birmingham, is due to the until the end of 2026, the Second Phase to Leeds and Manchester, expected to be in 2032-33.

Despite concerns about the Rail Link , Europe's largest infrastructure project, the work is not to hold and The Project is currently approximately £250 per month.

"The North , the civic and the managing Director have argued tirelessly that the large investment in infrastructure is therefore urgently needed to meet the capacity so desperately needed on our Rail network," said the Northern powerhouse partnership Director, Henri Murison.

the trains on the London-Birmingham route would be a 400m-long (1,300 ft) with up to 1,100 seats. You would have as many as 14 times per hour in each direction. The Department for transport, says The Project Will cut travel times between the cities from one hour 21 minutes 52 minutes.

Once the Second Phase is completed, from Manchester to London, travelling an hour to take seven minutes (would take below two hours, seven minutes) and Birmingham to Leeds, 49 minutes (two hours).

This would effectively travel to reduce the times between London and Edinburgh and London and Glasgow by an hour to three-and-a-half hours.

The government hopes its creation Will be free capacity on overcrowded commuter routes.

If you have not followed the HS2 drama, then an estimate of £106bn for the whole of The Project is surprising. But the fact that it check in another leaked draft of the government, makes it part of the official narrative.

Those against HS2 feel a perfect Storm coming. Conservative MPs (including those elected in the constituencies in the North of England) to press the watch to reconsider; the government spending watchdog Will soon publish a critical report, and Boris Johnson 's transport adviser, Andrew Gilligan , is skeptical about the program.

Tinker with The Project (reducing the speed of the trains or to add a station In Between Birmingham and London) do not save a lot of money, and The Line would slow down, defeated, to The Point that it's super-high-speed.

So, in the broadest sense, it feels like the government has an all-or-to make nothing decision. HS2 is currently about £250m burning a month, so you might think, the government would decide in a hurry.

But the fact that we are told here that this is not a Final Draft " of the assessment (although we were before told, that the review should have done at the end of last year) suggests that the government keep open the Insider your options. A decision is likely to come, I said, after a British EU exit.

HS2 has always divided parts (phases 1, 2a and 2b) was quite different the Second Phase is not put on ice for a bit longer, while other options be explored, would be in itself a radical option.

But The Project has a lot of support from political and business people in the North of England and The Midlands , so that, if the government was back then, the scale, the second route of the railway would Storm a bit of a.

grant shapps, hs2, department for transport, rail travel

Source of news: bbc.com