Britain’s High Speed 2 rail project is now ranked as the most expensive in the world.
The first and only phase of HS2 is priced at between A$93.44 billion and $112 billion by the U.K. government.
This breaks down to a staggering $665.6 million per mile.
The US$128-billion California High Speed Rail in the U.S. is the only other rail project to come close to matching HS2’s costs.
When it launched in 2012, it was with a projected overall cost of approximately $68.48 billion for almost 400 miles (643.738 kilometres) of new railway.
HS2 has now been overseen by five different CEOs, seven chairmen, six prime ministers, eight finance ministers and nine transport ministers.
Railway journalist Christian Wolmar says that the project was likely to fail from the start, with simple design flaws contributing to the rising prices.
“A number of mistakes were made at the outset, including the decision to build the line for 400 kilometers per hour operation, 100 kph faster than the international norm,” he says.
“There was also a lack of discussion over the chosen route, which could have followed existing highway corridors.”
Rapidly rising construction costs, unexpected British political upheaval and permit issues have also been attributed as some of the many difficulties HS2 has faced.