Greater Manchester Mayor calls for new rail line to be built in place of HS2

Responding to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) into the cancellation of HS2 North of Birmingham, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for an alternative rail line to be built to meet the region’s needs.

The NAO has reiterated Department for Transport (DfT) assessments that future West Coast Mainline services to Manchester will be slower and have a reduced capacity as a result of using new HS2 trains on the route – unlike existing Pendolino rolling stock, they will be unable to tilt to take corners on the track at a higher speed, as well as carrying fewer passengers. The West Coast Mainline as a result is expect to reach maximum capacity by the middle of the next decade, and lead to a worse service and higher fares between London and the North West.

Responding the report, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, has called for the DfT to explore construction of an alternative new rail line to be built, potentially using land already purchased for the HS2 route, to meet the future needs of rail users across the North West. In a statement published on the GMCA website, he said:

“Today’s report from the National Audit Office (NAO) shines a spotlight on the consequences of cancelling the northern leg of HS2 and backs up what we have been saying.

“By the Department for Transport’s assessment, the West Coast Main Line will be at capacity by the mid-2030s. Not doing anything to address this would be a brake on growth.

“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, I will never accept the message to the public being “don’t travel to Greater Manchester by rail”.

“Anyone who currently travels on the West Coast Main Line on a regular basis knows how chaotic it can be. It cannot take all those additional HS2 trains in its current state. As the NAO points out, they would have to be shorter trains, so there would be fewer seats, and they would go slower.

“The idea that we are going to make rail services worse by the middle of the century is a complete non-starter – a different plan is needed. This is an urgent problem that needs a coherent solution.

“No-one is talking about going back to HS2, but there has to be additional capacity between the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. This could be done through expanding and upgrading the West Coast Main Line, although the NAO warns that this would be very disruptive. I see a new, lower-cost, dedicated line as the only real solution.

“It would therefore be a mistake for the government to have a fire sale of the land it has bought to build HS2. Around £600m has already been spent, there is no way the government would recover that value. The best thing is to use that land to pave the way for the new line.”

The NAO’s report into how the cancellation process was being handled by HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport (DfT) has also revealed the costs associated with closing and remediating sites where work had been due to start The new Curzon Street station in Birmingham is also set to be delivered in full as this option is cheaper than cancelling part of the station, and will result in four of the seven platforms planned going unused once built.