Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate his Department has made of the area of land required for the HS2 project including depots, facilities and stations.

The latest estimate for the total permanent and temporary land requirement for the HS2 scheme, across Phases One, 2a and 2b (Western Leg), is 129.47 sqkm (this will include a degree of overlap between phases).

This is broken down between phases as follows, noting that the figures for the land required for Phase One and 2a are based on the design as at Royal Assent of the hybrid Bills for those phases, while the estimate for Phase 2b (Western Leg) is at a much lower level of design maturity as temporary and permanent land requirements for the scheme are being refined. The current estimates are as follows:

Phase 1 – 68.74 sqkm (excludes depots at Langley and Longsite)

Phase 2a – 29.20 sqkm

Phase 2b west – 31.53 sqkm