the incredible cost drift of the British HS2 high-speed line

2023-09-23 14:15:00

More than 60 billion pounds in 10 years (71.68 billion euros) This is the amount of the incredible explosion in the costs of HS2 (High Speed 2), the second British high-speed line, following that which connects the Channel Tunnel Valued at 37.5 billion pounds in 2013, the railway project, which aims to connect London to the major cities of the North of England, then l Scotland, is now estimated at nearly 100 billion pounds, or 115 billion euros. Making it ” one of the most expensive railway projects in the world » per kilometer, explained to AFP Sam Dumitriu, head of policy for the economic growth association Britain Remade, which compared infrastructure projects in fourteen countries.

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For example, the bill to build the 215 kilometers of track for the first section, between London and Birmingham, will amount to 247 million pounds (284 million euros) per kilometer, more than eight times more expensive than the LGV Tours-Bordeaux, which entered service in 2017. As a reminder, work began in April 2020 and the first trains should depart between 2029 and 2033.

Local residents and environmental defenders listened to

In particular, according to him, the taking into account of the grievances of local residents or environmental defenders in all infrastructure projects, which results, in the case of HS2, in a multiplication of sections in tunnels, more expensive. “ Why is it more expensive to build in Britain than in China? » asked Jon Thompson, president of the public company HS2, in a column in The Telegraph newspaper in February.

« Here, we do not flout the environment, town planning law, authorities and local populations », he insisted. And to send a few barbs to certain railway countries on the continent.

« Unlike (in) Spain, HS2 will transport people directly to the heart of city centers in some of the most expensive land and property areas in the world “. And unlike France, “ we choose to dig tunnels rather than demolish entire communities and swaths of countryside ».

Cuts in the project

However, the soaring costs are making the government cringe, which has since tried to make cuts to the project to save money. Thus, in November 2021, the section which was to connect Birmingham to Leeds fell by the wayside. Other sections were then postponed while the line will not stop as initially planned at Euston station in central London, but in the western suburbs of the capital. In July, the UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority said the project “appeared unfeasible” in its current form. According to the British press, the government is still considering the cancellation of another section, this time between Birmingham and Manchester. To the great dismay of local elected officials. Because we have to find other savings. Even reduced, the project might still cost more than 90 billion pounds once the recent surge in inflation is taken into account, the Financial Times estimated this week.

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South-West: a convoy once morest LGVs towards Dax and Toulouse

“We don’t want this LGV! »: several hundred activists undertook this weekend a “sarabande”, a convoy following the route of the high-speed line project from Bordeaux to Dax and Toulouse, a veritable political sea serpent in the region.

This “festive and combative” convoy, which set off on Friday followingnoon from the University of Talence, near Bordeaux, made a stop on Saturday morning in Balizac, in the south of Gironde, where it was joined by elected officials, mayors, deputies and senators from the villages crossed by the major South-West railway project (GPSO).

The activists denounce an “ecocide” project and plead in exchange for “the renovation and modernization of existing lines”.

On September 7, the Environmental Authority, an independent authority called upon to give an opinion on each infrastructure project subject to an environmental assessment, requested a new impact study. “The answers to many items in the environmental code are obsolete or incomplete,” she lamented.

Consulted by AFP, SNCF Réseau ensures that its “teams are fully mobilized to respond to the opinion of the Environmental Authority and provide additional information as quickly as possible”.

In January, a report from the Infrastructure Orientation Council had already recommended postponing the project, already delayed many times, beyond 2038.

“People are getting more and more upset. And now what annoys them even more are taxes. It is the municipalities most impacted by this project that will have to pay. It’s strong ! And the Girondins won’t even be able to take this LGV, unless they jump on a train that goes at 300 km/h under their windows. But they will have to pay it. It’s as if they were condemning us to death, making us pay for our own funerals,” concluded Jacqueline Lartigue-Renouil.

(With AFP)