Plans for a £33bn high-speed rail network to link Yorkshire and London are in deep trouble, after a spending watchdog rejected the Government’s business case.
There is “little supporting evidence” that 225mph trains will close the North-South divide, as ministers have argued, the National Audit Office (NAO) found.
And ministers had failed to back up claims that HS2 would create 100,000 jobs – or that rising passenger numbers required new lines.
And the Government may have left it too late to push through a Bill, to secure planning powers before the 2015 general election, the NAO said.
Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said much of the case for HS2 was “ludicrous”.
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