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<\/em><\/p>\n Rishi Sunak is reportedly ready to axe Phase 2 of the HS2 rail line \u2013 despite opposition from Tory predecessors, business chiefs and the Mayor of London.<\/p>\n The potential cost of the high-speed rail scheme \u2013 which Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said is \u201cout of control\u201d \u2013 is said to have soared by \u00a38 billion. It is now being widely reported that the PM is planning to announce the decision to kill off the Northern link to Manchester before the Tories host their conference in the city on October 1.<\/p>\n However, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said scrapping HS2 north would be “total Treasury-driven nonsense” – and doing so before the Manchester conference would be \u201cthe height of insanity\u201d.<\/p>\n Read more… <\/strong> HS2 Northern beset by spiralling costs and delays could be axed<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Sunak and the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are reported to be meeting to discuss the situation in the coming days.<\/p>\n A Whitehall source told the Telegraph: \u201cThere is a reluctance to throw good money after bad.\u201d The newspaper reported that officials expect the upper estimate of building the initial London to Birmingham stretch of the line to increase by more than \u00a38 billion from the \u00a345 billion figure published in June 2022.<\/p>\n Sky News also reports that Sunak will now scrap Phase 2 of HS2. Spiralling costs could prevent investment in other transport projects and wipe out any financial benefits from the scheme.<\/p>\n However, former prime minister Boris Johnson has labelled the scepticism around the scheme \u201ctotal Treasury-driven nonsense\u201d, stressing that it would make no sense to have a \u201cmutilated\u201d HS2 and warning that announcing it before the Manchester conference would be \u201cthe height of insanity\u201d.<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n David Cameron has also privately raised significant concerns about the prospect that the high-speed rail line could be truncated.<\/p>\n Dozens of business leaders signed a Times letter accusing Mr Sunak of damaging Britain\u2019s reputation as a place to do business by allowing uncertainty to \u201cplague\u201d the project.<\/p>\n Sir John Armitt, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, said it would be a \u201ctragedy\u201d if the scheme was cut back.<\/p>\n He warned it would damage the UK\u2019s appeal as a place to invest in major projects.<\/p>\n And in a letter to the Prime Minister, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said HS2 could end up being a \u201ccolossal waste of money\u201d if key elements of the plan are scrapped.<\/p>\n Mr Khan said it would take longer to get from Birmingham to central London on HS2 than existing trains if plans for it to terminate at Euston station are abandoned.<\/p>\n He said the speculation about scrapping the Birmingham-Manchester leg of the route was \u201cdeeply worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n The Labour mayor told Mr Sunak: \u201cThe Government\u2019s approach to HS2 risks squandering the huge economic opportunity that it presents and turning it instead into a colossal waste of public money.\u201d<\/p>\n When the railway first opens between London and Birmingham, expected between 2029 and 2033, its terminus in the capital will be Old Oak Common, in the western suburbs.<\/p>\n HS2 trains are not expected to run to Euston until around 2041 at the earliest and there are now doubts the central London extension will ever go ahead.<\/p>\n Mr Khan said: \u201cTerminating the service at Old Oak Common would be a short-sighted decision which will have long term implications, significantly downgrading the value of HS2 as a high-speed connection and leaving a ridiculous situation where a \u2018high speed\u2019 journey between Birmingham and central London could take as long as the existing route, if not longer.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the \u201cbest case\u201d journey time of one hour and 22 minutes from Birmingham to Euston, changing at Old Oak Common onto the Elizabeth Line and Northern Line, was \u201calready one minute longer than the existing train time\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Khan told the Prime Minister: \u201cThe public would rightly be dismayed were all of this time and money spent on a line that took longer to reach central London than the existing route, and was devoid of any proper connections to the north of England.\u201d<\/p>\n But Labour peer Lord Berkeley, who in 2019 was deputy chairman of a government-commissioned review into HS2, suggested funding should be prioritised for rail upgrades in northern England and the Midlands.<\/p>\n \u201cOld Oak Common will do fine for this truncated railway,\u201d he told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today.<\/p>\n A Government spokesman said: \u201cThe HS2 project is already well under way with spades in the ground, and our focus remains on delivering it.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Rishi-Sunak-will-reportedly-make-the-announcement-4975185.jpg?r=1695514822933\")
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