Could HS2 cost FIVE times more than its French equivalent? New claims by transport experts

Transport experts have slammed MPs for giving the planned high-speed link between London and the north of England the go ahead in a new report - calling it 'a vanity project.'

The academics said that France's TGV line from Tours to Bordeaux was costing £20m per km, compared with a projected cost of around £105m per km for HS2.

The much higher unit cost of HS2 is partly due to the complex plan for London Euston and to the need for extensive tunnelling through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The news comes less than a month after it was revealed Stafford could lose its planned service to London as part of a Government review into cutting the costs of HS2.

Britain's high speed rail line - linking London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, via 250mph trains running on a dedicated twin track - was passed through a Commons vote of 399 to 42 in March.

Although the academics, led by Professor Tony May from Leeds University and transport consultant Jonathan Tyler, said they broadly support HS2, they claim the only benefit it will achieve is to increase rail capacity and believe it will fail in other objectives - to increase connections, regenerate the North and reduce impacts of climate change.

Professor May said: "What's needed is an independent, objective assessment of the alternatives. These would include a less damaging version of HS2, a better-connected new line from London and transport investment in the north rather than to the north."

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has also criticised the government's handling of HS2.

Mark Littlewood, director general at the IEA, said: "HS2 is a fundamentally flawed vanity project that will be extortionately expensive and deliver very little benefit to taxpayers. Belatedly, it seems that policymakers and academics alike are finally coming to this realisation.

"Arguments about the benefits of faster journeys, capacity and regeneration of the north have all been debunked, and all this at the estimated cost of £80bn. Ultimately, if the HS2 project offered value for money the private sector would pay for it.

"Token cost-cutting will not suffice. The government should abandon the project altogether and look to prioritise removing regulations that are barriers to the development of commercially viable schemes that do not cost the taxpayer at all."

An HS2 spokesman said the French track was not comparable. He said: "The French track has no new stations; it does not go through a dense built-up urban area; it does not have the tunnels that we are building on HS2 to protect the environment? and property prices are very low in comparison to the UK. The net result is that it is cheaper."