HS2 is spending greater than £100m on a “shed” to guard bats on a part of the line, although there may be “no proof that excessive-paddle trains intervene with bats”, the mission company’s chairman has said.

Sir Jon Thompson said the 1km (0.6 mile) curved structure at Sheephouse Wood in Buckinghamshire will build a barrier so the creatures can soar over the railway without being tormented by passing trains as all bats are legally safe within the UK.

He told the Rail Industry Affiliation’s annual convention in London on Thursday HS2 is making an are attempting the constructing “a shed”, and it is a long way being constructed to soothe Whitehall advisory body, Pure England.

Sir Jon warned his target audience they would no longer give it some conception, however the shed “payment greater than £100m to guard the bats in this wooden”.

It became once, he said, an example of the UK’s “real discipline” with finishing up predominant infrastructure projects, explaining that the govt.owned company has had to construct 8,276 sees eye to eye from assorted public our bodies linked to planning, transport and the ambiance to invent piece surely one of the railway between the capital and Birmingham.

He said: “Of us order you’ve got got gone over the associated payment range, but did folks indulge in the bats [when setting the budget]?

“I’m being trite about it but I’m looking out out for to illustrate one example of the 8,276 of those [consents].”

Diverse, costlier alternate choices were moreover looked at while the High Velocity Two (London to West Midlands) Act became once going by parliament, he said, including boring a tunnel and re-routing the railway remote from the wooden.

Even after Pure England accredited the waste, the company had to exercise “millions of kilos” on lawyers and environmental consultants since the native council did no longer approve the work, Sir Jon said.

“Within the pause, I acquired the planning permission by going above Buckinghamshire Council’s head,” he explained.

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Sir Jon, who has led the mission since Label Thurston left his position as chief executive in September 2023, warned in January that the estimated payment for piece one has soared to as great as £66.6bn.

In 2013, HS2 became once estimated to payment £37.5bn (in 2009 costs) to your full planned network, including now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham to both Manchester and Leeds.