A coalition of transport experts and activists have called for the delivery of the High Speed 2 (HS2) high-speed rail link from Euston to Crewe in a letter to new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.
The open letter entitled Fix the Spine: Enhancing the present, making room for the future calls for four decisions on the next steps for the UK’s high-speed rail network, with the aim of ensuring that the completed line forms a “groundbreaking backbone for high speed”.
The “western section” of the HS2 project from Birmingham to Crewe and Manchester was officially cancelled in October 2023 after the previous Conservative government announced its intention to lift protections and sell the land along the route to prevent the new government from completing the route.
Since then, numerous organisations have condemned former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to cancel Phase 2 of Britain’s flagship infrastructure project.
In May this year, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) warned that failing to upgrade rail infrastructure north of Birmingham in the area that was to be served by the cancelled second phase of the HS2 project was not a sustainable option.
The annual Review of infrastructure progress for 2024 painted a bleak picture of the potential consequences of the government’s decision to cancel Phase 2 of HS2 for transport infrastructure in the north.
Shortly before the NIC report was published, the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded its inquiry into the HS2 programme and published a damning report on the project’s failures and the mismanagement of Euston terminus, saying: “Recent events have left us more concerned about the HS2 programme than ever before.”
Following the cancellation of the northern sections, the project is considered to be “very poor value for money” and the government must answer for its management and decision-making on the project, the budget watchdog said.
Then last month, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that cancelling HS2 construction north of Birmingham had wasted billions of pounds and lost most of its profits, and that the project is now in dire straits.
By the end of March 2024, HS2 Ltd had spent £30.1 billion on the project (at 2019 prices), including £27.8 billion on Phase 1 and £2.3 billion on the various parts of Phase 2.
The NAO further reported that the government had spent £592 million purchasing land and property for Phase 2 that was no longer needed.
The letter, signed by Enroute, focuses on smaller projects that can be implemented quickly, at relatively low cost and within current legislation. This includes completing the line to Crewe and onwards from Old Oak Common in London to Euston station.
At the beginning of July, Transport Minister Haigh said she was working “flat out” on a proposal for Euston.
At Euston, signatories of the letter called for a return to a two-phase plan so that work on the first phase of six platforms could resume as soon as possible, ensuring that high-speed trains could reach central London once it opened.
Leaving space for a second phase of five platforms in the wider Euston Quarter redevelopment will ensure that HS2’s planned capacity of 18 trains per hour to London can continue to be fully exploited when the network is expanded at a later date.
In Staffordshire, signatories are calling for urgent work to begin on extending the high-speed line beyond its currently planned end at Handsacre Junction, bypassing “the UK’s biggest bottleneck” and extending the line to or near Crewe.
They argue that this can be achieved using existing parliamentary powers already passed for the construction of Phase 2a of HS2 in 2021.
In the letter, this new line is referred to as the “Stafford Bypass Line.”
Enroute’s letter also calls for the land between Crewe and Manchester to be secured and retained until the Government is ready to commit to building a high-speed rail line to the city and has decided how the line from London will interact with Northern Powerhouse Rail and what form Manchester Piccadilly should take.
Stephen Goss, member of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Rail services to the West Midlands and the North West are at breaking point.
“To enable necessary improvements to the rail network, the government must act now and secure the high-speed line from London Euston to Manchester.
“Only by securing a future route between Crewe and Manchester and ensuring that HS2 runs to Euston can we achieve the increase in rail capacity needed to reduce car journeys.”
David Frankal, joint managing director of Enroute, said: “We continue to believe that in the long term, expanding the high-speed, high-capacity rail network across the country is only a question of when, not if.”
“It is a shame that the Government is not yet willing to commit to building the line to Manchester, but it still has the opportunity to make the line we have under construction a success and, crucially, to make provision for future extension.
“Now is the time to make these decisions before we face capacity constraints at stations like Euston. If we get this right, we can encourage the shift to public transport and boost the economy, particularly in the north of England.”
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