The Scottish Parliament Information Centre issued this briefing which outlines the key technologies, costs and benefits behind high speed rail operations.
“The financial cost of building an entirely new high speed railway varies according to a series of factors including the price of raw materials and labour and the costs of land and property purchase, particularly where the railway runs through existing urban areas with high land values. In addition, the cost of building tracks through tunnels or over viaducts can be four to six times as expensive as lines running over flat land. The most recent estimated costs for constructing a UK high speed rail network were produced by consultants Atkins in March 2008. They estimated that a west coast route linking London and Birmingham would cost £9bn while an east coast route linking London to a point near Leeds would cost £12bn and a full network linking London with Edinburgh and Glasgow would cost £31bn.”
