The government will also announce billions of pounds of investment in greener bus services and cycle paths.
John-Paul Ford Rojas looks at the detail of one of the UK's biggest infrastructure projects in decades
But it risks a furious backlash from Conservative MPs in the home counties and middle England, who are bitterly opposed to the project on grounds of its ballooning cost and the destruction of rural beauty spots. Meanwhile Greenpeace said Boris Johnson's decision will give him"the dubious honour of being this century's largest destroyer of irreplaceable ancient woodlands in the UK".
On HS2, he is likely to announce that work on the London to Birmingham and Birmingham to Crewe sections can begin immediately, opening in 2036. But it is thought that a phase from Manchester to Leeds will be delayed until 2040 to make sure it is cost-effective. In backing HS2, the prime minister is over-ruling his controversial special adviser Dominic Cummings, who has described it as"a disaster zone" and his transport adviser Andrew Gilligan, who have both argued for the project to be scrapped.Chancellor Sajid Javid
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