5:03pm Sunday 13th July 2008
By William Crossley
The projected cost of reinstating double track on parts of the Cotswold Line rail route could hit £105m - double Network Rail's estimate - according to consultants working for the rail industry regulator.
In a report on Network Rail's spending plans, engineering experts Arup said they had "serious concerns" over the gap between their calculation of the cost of the work on the Oxford-Worcester line and the rail firm's figures.
Earlier this year, in its Strategic Business Plan, Network Rail put the bill at £51m, although Arup said in late April the infrastructure firm put the cost at almost £74m - a figure Network Rail also gave to the Oxford Mail when publicly unveiling its proposals that month.
The Office of Rail Regulation, which commissioned the Arup report, put a price of £48m on the work in its official response to the business plan last month.
Network Rail wants to reinstate 20 miles of double track, including a 4.5-mile section running from Ascott-under-Wychwood to just east of Charlbury, and provide extra platforms at Charlbury and Ascott's stations.
Commenting on a series of increases in the projected bill since last October, Arup said: "This escalation supports our view that costs on this scheme are underestimated and the scope is ill-defined. While not as severe as before, we still have serious concerns."
They added: "Network Rail's continuous cost increases seem to be converging on the correct answer, but there still appears to be some way to go."
A spokesman for the ORR said: "Our role is to take Network Rail's plans and scrutinise them to make sure they add up. We think they can do the work for £48m.
"Where there is a disparity, we subject plans to benchmarking against costs on European and international networks."
Official approval from the ORR for Network Rail's 2009-14 spending plans is due in October. If final costings for the Cotswold Line scheme are signed off, work could start early next year, with completion expected in 2010.
In the late 1990s, redoubling of the Chiltern Line between Bicester and Princes Risborough cost about £1m a mile, but more complicated work in 2002 to double track the section from Bicester to Aynho junction, south of Banbury, cost £8m per mile.
A current project in south-west Scotland has cost about £4.5m per mile.
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