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The price range for the London terminus of Britain’s new HS2 high-speed railway line was “unrealistic” from the start, and the federal government’s resolution to delay setting up it can price at the least one other £200mn, a report from a cross-party group of MPs warns.

The rebuilding of Euston station to accommodate high-speed trains has emerged as one of many greatest complications for the HS2 programme. The challenge is designed to hold passengers from London to Birmingham and the north of England however has suffered delays and enormous price overruns, which may exceed £70bn, up from £37.5bn in 2013.

In an effort to manage ballooning prices, ministers introduced plans earlier this yr to halt, for an unspecified interval, work at Euston and the ultimate stretch of observe, which is able to run in a 7.2km tunnel into central London. It additionally delayed development of the part between Birmingham and Crewe for 2 years.

On the time, the federal government stated the transfer would permit the challenge to be placed on “a extra lifelike and steady footing”.

The report from the Home of Commons public accounts committee, revealed on Friday, says the sooner budgets for Euston station had been “fully unrealistic”. The committee says that, on the time the choice was taken to pause work on the station, its estimated price was £4.8bn. The unique price range had been £2.6bn.

The MPs have discovered that the upfront prices of mothballing the rebuild work will price the taxpayer an preliminary £200mn. Nevertheless it provides that the federal government did “not know what the extra prices and impacts will probably be from its resolution to pause development.”

The federal government had not but “reached a transparent understanding” of the impression of inflation on the Euston rebuild, the report provides.

The committee has additionally discovered that, regardless of eight years planning the station, the federal government nonetheless had no agreed design and did “not know what it [was] attempting to attain.”

Ministers first scaled again plans for Euston in 2020, when it reduce the variety of HS2 platforms from 11 to 10. However a Nationwide Audit Workplace report earlier this yr discovered that this revised plan was nonetheless £400mn dearer than the unique.

The PAC report warns that the consequences on native individuals and companies of the delay are additionally “unknown”. The HS2 development websites at Euston — cleared by demolition in recent times — sit subsequent to properties and enterprise.

It provides that ministers had not learnt classes from earlier troubled infrastructure tasks, corresponding to Crossrail, London’s long-delayed east-west underground railway now working because the Elizabeth line.

Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the general public accounts committee, stated the challenge at Euston was “floundering,” including: “The pause, ostensibly to economize, will not be price free . . . the federal government should now be clear what it’s attempting to attain.”

The federal government stated it remained “dedicated to delivering HS2 from Euston to Manchester in probably the most cost-effective means for taxpayers, which is why earlier this yr we made the choice to rephase the development of Euston to assist stability the nation’s books and work on an reasonably priced design for the station.”