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According to Rail Magazine and other sources, Rail Minister Lord Hendy has today confirmed that the Government will not sell land along the previously planned HS2 route between Crewe and Manchester. This was one of our four key asks, and was also requested by Manchester and Birmingham Mayors Andy Burnham and Richard Parker to enable their proposed alternative 'West Midlands to North West Rail Link'.
We look forward to hearing more about the Government's next steps in next week's budget.
Our campaign has received media coverage in the New Civil Engineer, Global Railway Review and Ian Visits.
We received a response to our open letter from Lord Peter Hendy, Minister of State for Rail. This is downloadable on the left-hand side of this page.
We launched the 'Fix the Spine' campaign and sent our open letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Louise Haigh.
What’s going on?
In October 2023, the then Conservative Government went back on its word and cancelled HS2’s ‘western leg’ to Crewe and Manchester, with most of the ‘eastern leg’ to Leeds and York having already been cancelled in 2021.
What remains of HS2 is a line that may or may not start at London Euston, running to Birmingham Curzon Street and Handsacre Junction, with trains to Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland via the latter immediately joining the West Coast Main Line at what will be Britain’s biggest bottleneck.
According to the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office, HS2 as it stands now represents poor value for money for the taxpayer, will make timetabling the railway more challenging, and could even result in a reduction in seat capacity. The last Government wanted to sell off the land, leaving us stuck with half a railway forever.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re calling on the Labour Government to make four key decisions that will turn the railway we have under construction into an effective “high-speed spine”, delivering capacity benefits to the rail network, boosting the economy and enabling sustainable modal shift, and leaving open the possibility of expanding the network in the future. These four asks can be delivered quickly, at relatively low cost, using existing parliamentary powers.
“We cannot make […] improvements in isolation from one another, because we will be doing only half the job; we will not fix the great musculoskeletal problem of UK transport. Yes, we must fix the joint between the knee bone and the thigh bone and the shin bone and the ankle bone. Yes, we must fix the arthritis in the fingers and the toes, but we also have to fix the spine, and our generation faces a historic choice. We can try to get by with the existing routes from north to south. We can consign the next generation to overcrowding and standing up in the carriageways. Or we can have the guts to take a decision […] no matter how difficult and controversial, that will deliver prosperity to every part of the country.”
Boris Johnson, Former Prime Minister
What is this campaign for?
Our four key asks are:
- Delivery of London Euston station phase 1 (six platforms), and the line to Old Oak Common, as the terminus of the high-speed spine.
- Safeguarding space at London Euston for the future delivery of phase 2 (a further five platforms), to enable future growth and the full exploitation of the high-speed spine.
- Delivery of a Stafford Bypass line from Handsacre to Crewe, fixing Britain’s biggest bottleneck.
- Safeguarding a future route between Crewe and Manchester.
Enroute continues to believe a full high-speed network that connects the country will be necessary and beneficial in the long term. The Labour Government have made it clear they will not commit to this, but they still have the opportunity to make a success of the network we have under construction today, and leave room for future expansion.
That’s why, alongside a coalition of transport experts and campaigners, we’ve written an open letter to the Government to make our four key asks. We will continue to work on developing our long term vision for a high-speed network, and collaborate with and support other organisations doing so, but we hope to build a short-term consensus on the need to focus on these four crucial decisions. These decisions will need to be made before capacity limitations are baked into stations such as London Euston, as was proposed under Network North.
Our campaign has received coverage from the New Civil Engineer, Global Railway Review and Ian Visits. Following our campaign, the Telegraph has reported that Starmer is “reconsidering” previously cancelled high-speed rail projects.
David Frankal’s contribution to planning and launching this campaign, including drafting and signing the open letter to the Government, was prior to his employment at Network Rail. This campaign represents David Frankal’s view in his capacity as Joint Chief Executive of Enroute and should not be taken to represent the view of Network Rail or any other organisation (other than co-signatories).
Additional information
- Public Accounts Committee
- National Audit Office
- Exploiting the Potential (High Speed Rail Group)
- Crewe to Manchester: the Key Choices (Greenguage 21)
- HS2 Next Steps (Campaign for Better Transport)
- A New Approach for HS2 (Chris Gibb)
