The Latest Breaking News from HS2

No 10 suggested ministers would need to balance the interests of ‘passengers and taxpayers’ when asked whether the second stage could be scrapped.

No10 refuses to confirm leg will go ahead with £34bn at stake

It comes after The Independent revealed ministers are considering shelving the second phase of the high-speed rail line

Business group say cutting phase 2 of line would seriously damage government relationship with enterprise

The government is rethinking plans for part of Britain’s biggest rail infrastructure project, much delayed and well over budget

Exclusive: PM and chancellor discuss halting ‘unachieveable’ leg of rail line from Birmingham to Manchester

Britain has endured its fair share of doomed prestige projects, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian, but “as white elephants go, HS2 is in a class of its own”. Since the high-speed rail link got the formal parliamentary go-ahead in 2012, it has become a byword for bureaucratic incompetence and…

The machines will be kept in an underground chamber at Old Oak Common, ready to start tunnelling should the central London leg get the go-ahead.

The vanity project is scandalously over budget. Finally cancelling it would show the party is serious about public finances, says the Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott

Six activists who occupied tunnel network near London station either pleaded guilty or were found guilty

Brief letters: People v machines | Sunak’s green pledges | ‘Unachievable’ HS2 | Top children’s TV shows | Raspberry vinegar