Sir David Higgins, the man credited (gasp!) with bringing the Olympics in on budget and now boss of HS2, wants to speed up the building of the northern section of the £50bn high-speed rail project.
The cost simply trips off the tongue without so much as the bat of an eyelid - £50bn!
It is not that long ago that the cost was a staggering £32bn. It has now gone up by over 50% and we have not even bought so much as a bag of sand. How much will it have cost by the time it is finished?