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BBC UK

HS2 blew billions - here's how and why

BBC UK
Summary
Nutrition label

66% Informative

HS2 was meant to be the railway of the future, but more than a decade on the project is mired in uncertainty.

Rail experts looked across the channel at Franceâs new high-speed TGV network and dreamed of a similar service here.

But speed helped attract politicians to it with the promise of a super quick connection between London and Birmingham , with trains racing further north to Leeds and Manchester .

HS2 was not the main issue of the moment when it was approved by Parliament in 2017 .

The government was teetering on the brink, trying to deal with the daily hourly pressures of the Brexit negotiation.

By the time of the vote, many believed the likely costs would be much more than the budgeted Â55.7 billion.

In depth: The handling of HS2 should be like a morality tale in Whitehall .

Some say, irrespective of the cost, in the end the nation will be grateful for HS2.

But few projects overspend on such a massive scale and deliver so much less than was promised.

VR Score

75

Informative language

78

Neutral language

35

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

35

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

no external sources

Source diversity

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