HIGH-SPEED RAIL IN BRITAIN: RISING COSTS CAST DOUBT ON GAME-CHANGER STATUS

The British government confirmed on Sunday it may scrap a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England.

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British media reported that an announcement is expected this week that the line will end in Birmingham -- 100 miles (160 kilometers) from London -- rather than further north in Manchester. The Conservative government insists no final decision has been made about the embattled High Speed 2 project. But Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said it was "proper and responsible" to reconsider a project whose costs have ballooned because of high inflation driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

"We've seen very, very high global inflation in a way that no government could have predicted," said Shapps, a former transportation secretary who now serves as the UK's defence minister.