Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Rail Minister, responding to Network Rail’s confirmation to the Public Accounts Committee that the cost of electrifying the Great Western Main Line has risen to between £2.5 billion and £2.8 billion, said:

“The Government has ignored repeated warnings over the rising cost of the Great Western electrification project. Labour first raised concerns with Patrick McLoughlin over a year ago and the Transport Select Committee warned in January that the cost of Great Western electrification was spiralling out of control. Instead of getting a grip Ministers buried their heads in the sand until after the election, and now we learn that costs have risen from an estimated £548 million in 2011 to up to a staggering £2.8 billion today. It’s clear that the black hole in Network Rail’s budget has left the Government’s much-heralded ‘biggest rail modernisation programme since the Victorian era’ in tatters. It’s vital that the Transport Secretary now explains why he failed to act before June and comes clean as soon as possible on which other projects are now in danger due to rising costs on the Great Western Main Line.”