THE boss of HS2 yesterday challenged politicians to pave the way for faster building of the line to reduce its £50 billion cost.
Sir David Higgins proposed an accelerated timetable for phase 2 - the northern section of the high-speed line.
The former London Olympics guru also called for a new look at ways of improving connections between phase 2 and the existing railway.
And he proposed a larger development at Euston - the project's southern terminus - but said plans to link HS2 with HS1, the London to Kent Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link, should be reconsidered.
No government has yet made a commitment to extend the line to Scotland but a study aiming to increase the benefits to Scotland of the project was announced by the UK government last year.
Phase one would see a line running from London through Tory heartlands to Birmingham and is due for completion in 2026.
Phase two will see the line continue in a Y-shape from Birmingham to north-west and north-east England and, under current plans, would be completed around 2032/33.
The current total cost, including contingencies, is £42.6 billion, with £7.5 billion for the trains.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls and others are concerned about the cost of the project but shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh welcomed yesterday's announcements.
She said: "We will continue to hold the Government to account for keeping costs down on the project."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article