Ministers must set out how they will ease congestion and boost rail links in the North in the wake of the decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, MPs have warned.
In a damning report into the mismanagement of the high-speed rail line, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) claimed the handling of the project risked causing “reputational damage” to the UK.
It added that the cost of the rail link could end up costing the taxpayer close to £80bn, even after the line linking Birmingham to Manchester was axed by the previous Conservative government.
The decision by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak sparked uproar, and the PAC has said that the Government must now set out how it intends to address “future West Coast Main Line capacity issues and rail connectivity in the North” in its six-monthly update to Parliament on HS2.
As revealed by The i Paper, ministers have put off any plans for a new Birmingham to Manchester rail link until after HS2 is back on track.
The report adds that the Government “must not waste” its latest opportunity to reset the project after years of cancellations, delays and spiralling costs.
The PAC said the HS2 programme has become “a casebook example of how not to run a major project”.
“It is unacceptable that over a decade into the programme we still do not know what it will cost, what the final scope will be, when it will finally be completed or what benefits it will deliver,” the report states.
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Read MoreConservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, who chairs the committee, said: “We are sceptical of the Government’s ability to successfully deliver even a curtailed scheme, one which we already know will on its face bring very poor value for money.
“This is likely to have wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in delays and overspends.”
Business and political leaders representing the north of England have seized on the PAC’s recommendations, insisting that any reset of HS2 must lead to improved connectivity across the region, having been made a manifesto commitment by Labour during the election.
The Northern Powerhouse Partnership is urging the Government to retable crucial HS2 legislation to allow work to begin to improve connections from Manchester right through to Newcastle.
The business group has also made further calls for ministers to consider a new line, dubbed HS2-lite, that would run slower trains and be part-funded by the private sector.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the so-called Hybrid Bill, which was paused after HS2 north of Birmingham was axed, must be restarted to allow a new line between Manchester airport and Piccadilly, which he described as a “first step of new infrastructure through and on towards Bradford, Leeds and cities beyond including Hull and Newcastle”.
Murison added: “The future prosperity of the North of England has been held back for too long by poor judgement and indecision in Whitehall.”
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, warned the Government must not “lose momentum”.
“Jobs and growth depend on improving connections to neighbouring places in the M62 economic corridor that is currently only connected by that congested motorway,” she added.
Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton North, Elise Blundell, called on the Government to “seize this moment and ensure that people across the Manchester city region benefit from the promise of Northern Powerhouse Rail, from HS2 and from this Government’s bold plans to transform transport across this country”.
A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said: “Mark Wild, our new chief executive, agrees with the committee’s conclusion that there has been failure in the management of HS2’s cost and schedule.
“He is taking decisive action to get the project back on track at the lowest feasible cost.”
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