Berlin's new airport? Planned for 5 years, finished in 14. Stuttgart's central station? Still under construction after 16 years. Hamburg's concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie? Nine years instead of three. And the costs? Sometimes 10 times higher than promised. Or take Cologne's opera house. Built in the 1950s as a symbol of modern democracy, it was a cultural jewel.
The Treasury-backed savings bank National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has been criticised over failing to control costs and have a viable plan in place to complete a business transformation project which is already two years late and has spent over 3bn in taxpayer money. NS&I has around 25 million customers which it serves through the Premium Bonds prize draw and fixed term savings bonds, representing more than an estimated 240bn. However, the transformation project has been condemned by a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which says it has not yet managed to deliver any meaningful benefits for taxpayers.
Or take Cologne's opera house. Built in the 1950s as a symbol of modern democracy, it was a cultural jewel. By 2012, it needed renovation. The plan sounded simple: three years of work, reopening in 2015. Fast-forward to today: The building, which comprises the opera itself, a theater with two stages, and a children's opera with its own stage, remains a construction site.
The build up to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina have been far from ideal. The ice rink has been delayed and riddled with issues. The bobsleigh track has been controversial from the start. History shows that many Winter Olympic hosts have also been plagued by late construction completions and rising costs, but perhaps 2026 represents a tipping point.
The government is set to announce its intention to build a new rail link between Birmingham and Manchester, the BBC understands. Previous plans for the HS2 high-speed rail line had included a line between the two cities, but that part of the project was scrapped by Rishi Sunak's government. On Wednesday, the government is expected to confirm proposals for new and improved rail links across the North of England in a scheme known as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
"There's so much that can go wrong," she told The Register. "From the beginning, we're talking with clients, and we're hearing a technology conversation without any type of business input, and that happened today. We're always steering clients back to the fact that this is business transformation. There needs to be executive sponsorship, there needs to be evidence that the organization is actually preparing itself for change - how they're going to operate - and not just replacing an application."
The survey found that 57 percent of respondents spent more than $1 million on migration projects in the previous year, and those efforts ran an average of 18 percent over budget. Beyond financial strain, nearly 70 percent of technology leaders reported increased developer burnout and declining morale following major migrations. Perhaps most concerning, 75 percent said that security integrations became harder to maintain after consolidation.
Logistical challenge of housing the workforce necessary for the project set to become a headache Cost overruns on the multi-billion euro MetroLink project are expected to be split between the State and contractors to avoid repeating mistakes of the new National Children's Hospital, which has seen massive budget overruns. New documents obtained by the Sunday Independent also reveal that developers leading the project will be incentivised to deliver the underground railway on budget and on time.
At the United Nations, President Trump repeated long-debunked claims about ending wars, renewable energy, climate science, and even the UN's own renovation costs. Trump's address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday was riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations. He recycled familiar talking points about climate change, renewable energy, immigration, and his own diplomatic record, alongside fresh distortions about the UN's New York headquarters. While a full fact-check of every statement goes beyond this article's scope, DW Fact check examined several of his key remarks.
The US military is facing worsening delivery delays for its advanced F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, according to a new government watchdog assessment. A report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that most F-35s delivered in 2023 by contractor Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney were late, arriving an average of 61 days behind schedule. In 2024, the problem grew notably worse: every F-35 delivered was late, with an average delay of 238 days.
Our board's responsibility is to balance water reliability with affordability, and we are deeply concerned that moving forward with Pacheco would place too great a burden on our ratepayers without cost-effective benefits.
A mistake in the automated track switches. An anomaly that should not have happened in the design of the railway system. This is how Oscar David Lozano, Director General of Mexico's Maya Train, explained the track incident during the morning press conference, which caused a minor derailment of two train cars at the Izamal station in Yucatan on Tuesday afternoon.
Trump expressed his frustration with the renovation cost, stating it was $3.1 billion, while Powell remained silent, indicating a discrepancy with the Fed's figure of $2.5 billion.
