Government rumoured to reintroduce HS2 to Crewe
UPDATE 18 October: A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told Rail magazine: “As we set out in the King’s Speech, the government will not reverse the decision to cancel phase two of HS2. As you know, the project has been repeatedly delayed, costs have spiralled, the project has clearly been hugely mismanaged.”
The Labour government is expected to announce the reversing of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to cut HS2’s Northern leg between Birmingham and Crewe, according to media reports.
HS2 had initially been slated to go from London to Leeds, before being cut back to London to Manchester – and then scaled down again to between London and Birmingham last year in a controversial decision by the Conservative government.
The Northern leg of HS2 had comprised two phases: 2a, which connected Birmingham to Crewe, and 2b, which went from Crewe to Manchester. It was said to have a price tag of £36bn.
However, a re-evaluation of the scheme’s cost-benefit has pushed Keir Starmer to reconsider the scrapping of at least one part of the Northern half of the original project, according to LBC. The media organisation also reported that the future phase 2a would not be under the remit of HS2 Ltd. Instead, a private sector group would lead the scheme’s delivery.
Northerners have long been calling for additional investment in the regional transport scene, with politicians advocating for a variety of solutions.
In September, plans for Midlands-North West rail were put forward by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker.
The plans were partly in response to the cancellation of HS2, with an understanding that connecting the city regions in the North West to smaller towns along the West Coast Mainline remained critical.
Burnham and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram have also been pushing for a new Manchester-Liverpool rail link – the future of which was thrown in doubt in September after transport secretary Louise Haigh discussed the need for pragmatic spending over fulfilling previous government promises.
At Place North West’s Place RESI event on Thursday, Burnham cited transport as a key barrier to development in the region.
He also referenced his own plans to improve the situation in Greater Manchester.
In July, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority announced plans to expand the Bee Network, reaching further out from Manchester city centre.
Burnham pointed to the success of Stockport Interchange and nodded to plans to establish eight Greater Manchester commuter train lines connecting towns such as Golborne and Buxton with an efficient route into the city.
He said the lines would operate in a similar fashion to London’s Overground services, which connects commuter towns to the Transport for Greater London network.
The eight rail corridors proposed for integration into the Bee Network are:
- Wigan via Atherton
- Wigan via Bolton
- Wigan via Golborne
- Manchester Airport
- Alderley Edge and Buxton via Stockport
- Glossop, Hadfield and Rose Hill Marple via Guide Bridg
- Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge
- Rochdale
The railways would provide developers with opportunities around these stations, with a specific desire for similar densification of homes around the connections.
If true, it gets more and more ridiculous. The extension to Euston and London gets go ahead, and the North leg if HS2 stops at CREWE!
By jrb
An Overground style system would be a lot more beneficial than HS2 would
By Quail
It will not go to Crewe, its just being said as a reason to ensure it goes to Euston. Euston will get funding committed, Crewe leg will get pulled next parliament whoever is in.
By Loganberry
Liverpool also I believe
By Anonymous
Labour needs to fund the direct high speed line between Liverpool and Manchester and get the freight separated so a dedicated line can go the Liverpool docks all the way to Hull. Local transport needs major investment, such as Merseyrail and reintroducing stations in towns and villages that rail passes through. Thousands more homes are being built without decent transport infrastructure.
By GetItBuilt!
If this does go to Crewe anything North of that now needs a massive re-think.
It was never right that only Manchester benefitted so much more than anyone from this. North of Crewe should directly advantage both Liverpool and Manchester , and ultimately have a goal of reaching Glasgow and Edinburgh in order to get the most out of highspeed, long distance travel.
By Anonymous
Yes as has been said this is to ensure the London folk get their high speed commuter line. Wonder how many people in London plan a visit to crewe on a regular basis. Utter nonsense do it properly or not at all
By Anonymous
@Loganberry took the words out of my mouth. I’ll believe it when I’m on a high speed train in Crewe
By Anonymous
Crewe really needs some certainty to try and get investment to help regenerate the town centre.
My concerns is that HS2 will merely go through Crewe fast and not stop. Crewe is important for connectivity to reduce car dependency and even become a major settlement since London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool would be accessible within 60 minutes. This needs a vision to drive forward Crewe as a “new city”
By Anonymous
HS2 (which is a silly name) currently ending at Handsacre in the Mildlands is the same as a Motorway feeding into a A road (as the existing west coast mainline) … the full capacity of HS2 can’t be realised without the extension to Crewe…
Next bit is NPR Manchester – there might be capacity from Crewe to Wilmslow – but all the rail lines into Manchester are full
By Anonymous
No disrespect to Crewe but unless this continues to Glasgow, it is just a smokescreen for the definite billions, London Labour has highlighted for Euston. Unless the high speed train between Liverpool and Manchester goes through Crewe, not one place of size in the North West will benefit from this. It will still be a traipse to get to it for everybody else. This is like stoping a high speed train meant for London in Watford, utterly useless. This needs to go to Warrington where it will connect to the proposed high speed Liverpool/ Manchester line. Is there anybody in that parliament with a braincell?
By Elephant
Building to Crewe is the fairest solution. A line all the way to Manchester while leaving Liverpool in the slow lane would have sent out a terrible signal to would be investors in the latter.
By Anonymous
Japan is building the next generation Maglev trains connecting their major cities, while the UK can’t even get a High speed train built.
By Anonymous
Excellent. One step at a time
By H
The HS2 is a no brainier to build to at least Crewe. Ask anyone on the railway and they find that the most baffling part of Sunaks plan. It just creates a massive bottleneck at Stafford and Colwich Jn, and does nothing for the regeneration of Crewe station which is a national embarrassment. If that station was in London, they’d be howling about it on a daily basis. Far worse than they do about Euston.
By Mark
Too much time and money and effort is spent on London
By Lee Bennett
Funny how criticism seems to be both; “oo it’s not maglev” or “it’s an economic white elephant”. Complete lack of awareness of how expensive maglev would be! Only criticism I have any time for is about intra-northern connectivity. Everything appears to be incoherent excuses from the ‘anything but brigade’ whose rationale blows in the wind as long as people listen.
By H
A waste of money while rail fares remain so high as to discourage people using services
By Tony Smith
Is the government really going to pay for it out if the money we haven’t got? I think not!
By Rudolf Pilsel
Getting HS2 to Crewe would be a massive win for the north. It gives us a real chance of the short extension to High Legh happening, where trains could branch off west to Liverpool or east to Manchester/Leeds and beyond on Northern Powerhouse Rail. The main problem with all this is the country is broke and can’t afford anything. Fingers crossed we can keep cynical politicians like Sunak away from all this until it’s fully built.
By Mancunian
This is good news, I don’t connect this to the Euston link at all, that is going to go ahead anyway, and so it should, it’s basic common sense….I think the whole HS2 original plan should GP ahead but build in stages, the Crewe leg is welcomed and in future they should plan for a link to Manchester too. Linking our major cities with a world class high speed rail line shouldn’t be something we are afraid of doing….the UK desperately needs that sort of state infrastructure investment, why not?
By Cristoforo
Andrew Gilligan was correct all along, he said HS2 was an ill thought out vanity project drawn up by Lord Adonis and his civil servants. Adonis must’ve said design me a high speed line to the North and get it to stop at some big cities, maybe Birmingham and Manchester, oh and maybe Leeds, and sod the rest I’ve ticked some boxes so get on with it.
By Anonymous
Apparently it isn’t true. According to PNW, Starmer has said it is an unfounded rumour. It was a London Labour smokescreen to deflect from Euston. He has been found out and decided to leak his real intentions to the press.
By Elephant
Anyone else have whiplash? We certainly do at PNW. I’ve updated the story with the latest, which looks decidedly less optimistic than what was reported yesterday.
By Julia Hatmaker
@Anon – Andrew Gilligan is completely discredited on HS2. Take a look at his Twitter feed, when challenged he reveals himself to be almost entirely lacking in engineering and railway knowledge. It’s quite embarrassing actually. Far from being a vanity project, HS2 is actually vital to increasing capacity and reliability on the network. In its current curtailed form, it will actually reduce capacity so it will have to be be delivered in one form or another, eventually.
By Anonymous
The north (all of it) never gets the transformational transport infrastructure it desperately needs but anything London wants is treated by the political establishment of both major parties as an essential “national” project. Can the northern cities collectively put pressure on the London groupthink to change this?
By Anonymous
Reading the 18th Oct update that ‘as you know..’ phrase says it all… AKA you were told, get back in your box… no possible sense it might have been the wrong decision at the time, or that energy and effort has since been put into alternatives that might move the dial a bit.
Elsewhere the £18 billion massively delayed and £4bn over budget Crossrail won the Stirling Prize for Architecture yesterday! Add in the £6bn also spent on Thameslink 2000 (completed 2020), the Overground extension programme plus general cost inflation in the past 25 years and that’s not far off the £36bn we’re told is too much spent in new capital projects that almost entirely benefit London and the SE.
Meanwhile we’re still waiting for 2 extra east-west platforms to ease things at Piccadilly.
By Starmer-nomics
About time! We need a line going on to Newcastle too.
By David Branson