High Speed 2 Railway Line

(asked on 20th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Sugg on 16 Nov (HL Deb, col 80GC), what target design costs they have set HS2 Ltd; what are the comparable construction costs for HS2 Phases 1, 2A, and 2B; and how they intend to ensure that HS2 Ltd keep within the long-term funding envelope of £55.7 billion


Answered by
Baroness Sugg Portrait
Baroness Sugg
This question was answered on 4th December 2017

We are confident that HS2 will be delivered within budget, and HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport both have rigorous cost control measures in place to make sure this happens.

The Department has set HS2 Ltd an overall target price for Phase One, and has embedded target prices within the procurement processes for each element of the railway to drive down costs and deliver value for money over the whole life of the project. Procurement exercises are currently underway, and target prices are therefore commercially sensitive. Releasing them would affect the tendering and bidding process and could worsen value for money achieved for the taxpayer.

Benchmarked Target Design Costs for Phase Two and details of the latest cost estimate are set out in the Phase Two Financial Case, published in July 2017. These targets have been set at £55m/km for Phase 2a and £65m/km for Phase 2b. Achieving these targets will deliver the HS2 Phase Two programme well below the long-term funding envelope set at SR15.

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