The future of the land belonging to the cancelled HS2 legs to Manchester and Leeds is still "under consultation", according to claims made in a new podcast series.
Lord Peter Hendy, Minister of State for Rail at the Department for Transport, told the BBC Radio 4 series that the Government was still considering the future of the previously cancelled routes, known as phase two.
Phase one of HS2 is currently under construction between London and the West Midlands, including four new stations in Birmingham city centre, Solihull near the airport, Old Oak Common in West London and Euston.
Phase two of the scheme would have seen a leg built from Birmingham to the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds and a separate leg to Crewe, Manchester Airport and Manchester city centre.
These were cancelled in 2021 and leaving just the 135-mile route between Birmingham and London intact.
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During the interview for the podcast - called 'Derailed: The Story of HS2' - Lord Hendy tells presenter Kate Lamble about the "mess" that has been inherited.
He said: "There's no doubt about it….. but what we have resolved to do is to sort it out."
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Lord Hendy said the future of the land still being held by HS2 remained undecided and was under consultation.
He added: "The planning that went into HS2 was over a long number of years and to….. stop it without any thought of what you would do instead has caused us to have to think very clearly and do a load of work.
"So I can't pre-empt that, and in any case, our first job is to fix the project we've got now."
Lord Hendy is waiting for up-to-date estimates from HS2's chief executive Mark Wild following recent reports the latest estimate for building the line between Birmingham and Old Oak Common is £81 billion. Accounting for inflation, that would mean at least £100 billion.
Speaking about the figures, Lord Hendy said: "I haven't seen numbers like that, except in the media. People are fond of quoting numbers in the media."
HS2 said: "This cycle of cost increases and delays must be broken and we have a comprehensive plan to reset the programme - ensuring the mistakes of the last five years aren't repeated."
The ten-part podcast series hears from a range of different people connected to the rail project including villages along the line to those inside HS2 and Downing Street.
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Contributors across the series include former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who recalls how, despite HS2 scepticism from various advisers, he "always knew that it was going to be the right thing to do".
Discussing the need for improving infrastructure, Mr Johnson said: "It's a disgrace that, since the middle of the 19th century, London has been developing and has got better and better and the North East, North West and the Midlands haven't had the same effect.
"And HS2 was clearly going to be part of it.
"I could see the cost problems but great infrastructure projects depend on politicians having the will, political will to keep going because these are investments in the future."
Former HS2 chairman Sir Douglas Oakervee was appointed by Boris Johnson to carry out an independent review into the project in 2019.
Mr Johnson said: "(Doug) was also a very reliable and brilliant transport engineer. I knew I could rely on Doug to come up with an answer that I would be happy with.
"If he thought it was really a dud, he would have told me."
Also appearing in the series are Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, former HS2 chairmen Brian Briscoe and Allan Cook and former transport adviser Andrew Gilligan.
Mr Burnham outlined plans last year alongside former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street to create a new rail line between Birmingham and the North West following the cancellation of the Crewe and Manchester legs of the HS2 project.