Even before construction starts, the U.K.’s new high-speed railroad between London and Leeds, England, via Birmingham and Manchester, has undergone a 40% budget increase and two-to-five-year schedule extension, according to an assessment by Allan Cook, chair of the project company HS2 Ltd.
Revealing the new numbers on Sept. 3, British Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said work on the project would continue until a separate review ordered by the government last month concludes.