For HS2? No its not, even if you deduct the £8bn for land purchases it’s still way more expensive. Most expensive French line so far from Lyon Marseille was aro

For HS2? No its not, even if you deduct the £8bn for land purchases it’s still way more expensive. Most expensive French line so far from Lyon Marseille was around €35m/km crossing the Haut Massif on 50 tunnels and bridges. Most recent Tours-Bordeaux was ~€23m/km. London Birmingham is costing something closer to €300m per km. I can’t be bothered to google the sources again and think about inflation but even with inflation and land prices I’m confident that it is costing at the very least 3 times more than it would in France maybe as much as 10x; something doesn’t stack up.