Rail group says North Wales priorities must be backed if plug pulled …
A rail group will press for funding for the electrification of the North Wales main line and other major investments if the HS2 link to Manchester is scrapped. A day of chaos at the Tory party conference yesterday has left the northern leg of the project in limbo - with sources saying it has been dropped but no official confirmation, or denial, from 10 Downing Street.
Rumours had been circling for weeks that the high-speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester was going to be axed by prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt due to soaring costs. Reports emerged yesterday that it was about to be chopped while UK Government have said "no final decisions have been taken on Phase 2 of HS2" but have refused to give any more assurance than that.
There is already speculation that in place of HS2 the UK Government will boost rail funding for northern England. Growth Track 360 (GT360) - made up of business and political leaders - says that if the second leg goes then its priorities for North Wales and Cheshire should be backed with any new funding that is released.
HS2 has been controversially classed as an England and Wales project by UK Government despite the fact the planned line didn't cross the border. It was justified with a claim that a Crewe spur would be beneficial to North Wales but if the extension beyond Birmingham is cancelled due to rising costs then this kills off that argument.
This will increase the pressure for the country to receive the billions of pounds it should have had through the Barnett consequential. Based on the reduced HS2 this would be around £2bn.
A spokesperson for GT360 said they will call for investment in its well-developed rail priorities should the Sunak Government decide that HS2 will terminate at Birmingham.
They said: "The potential decision to cancel HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester will be catastrophic for the overall rail industry as, HS2 was to provide new capacity and enable passenger growth in the long term via new lines, whilst the old West Coast Main Line carried more regional/local and freight services. All the business planning for the North Wales Coast Main Line and Chester Station has been predicated on HS2, with passenger growth from more people being able to travel by rail because of the extra capacity provided by the new HS2 lines.
"Therefore, GT360 remains committed to the delivery of HS2 to Manchester via Crewe, where it will connect to services for North Wales and Chester. If the cancellation is announced GT360 will write to the government seeking funds for electrification of the North Wales Coast Main Line (plus line speeds and capacity), upgrade of Chester Station to enable more services to Manchester, Liverpool, Crewe (London) South Wales and the Midlands via Wrexham[1] and Shrewsbury and transformation of the Wrexham to Liverpool Line (via Bidston). GT360 is also pressing for the restoration of West Coast Main Line services to London to the pre-covid level provided by Avanti.
"The case for some form of equivalent to Barnett Consequentials for railways in Wales from the “Acton to Aston” High Speed Line (Old Oak Common to Birmingham) will be incontrovertible as the new line will clearly be an England only scheme. However, the UK government may continue to seek to evade that obligation by saying that rail infrastructure is non-devolved.
"The issue is more about winning more rail investment cash for Wales than debating the constitutional mechanism through which it might arrive. If the political will to invest in Welsh rail priorities is developed and articulated at a senior level in the UK government, then the cash can flow without anyone having to worry about the bureaucratic route by which it arrives.
"We have to be concerned that not building HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester may not actually release a lot of money for alternative rail investments. For example, HS2, a national strategic rail project was discussed by the prime minister alongside filling potholes as a more popular priority with motorists."