Stoke-on-Trent’s ?250m international HS2 railway station that never …

As pressure grows on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to make an announcement about the future of the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the HS2 line, we take a look back at Stoke-on-Trent City Council's failed £800,000 bid to secure a stop in the city on the high speed track.

Back in the early days of the project, auditors KPMG had estimated that if HS2 bypassed the Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire will be £78 million a year worse off while Birmingham and Manchester would continue to grow and thrive. In response, the city council submitted a proposal in January 2014 for what they called the 'Stoke Route', which would have seen a £250million international railway station built in the city.

The submission claimed that if Stoke-on-Trent got its own stop, HS2 would complement regeneration efforts, helping to double the city’s economic output from £5 billion to £10 billion by 2033. Other proposed benefits included: a 50 per cent growth in population to 700,000; 125,000 new jobs generated by HS2, with up to 300,000 new jobs by 2033; a 40 per cent increase in property values; and 85,000 new houses.

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The plans for the Stoke Route involved upgrading around 38 miles of the existing West Coast Main Line, from Stone through Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester, to accommodate high speed trains travelling at up to 142mph. While this was slower than 250mph achievable elsewhere on the planned network, officials said the journey from Manchester to London Euston would take one hour 40 minutes on the HS2 route, but only one hour 28 minutes on the Stoke route.

The proposal also claimed that it would remove the need to build more than 50 miles of new high speed railway through rural Staffordshire and Cheshire, as well as reducing the capital cost of the project from £8.4 billion to £3.2 billion – a saving of £5.2 billion. In addition, it was said that the Stoke Route would have meant that the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 would be completed by 2026 – seven years earlier than expected at the time.

The city council’s HS2 bid included proposals for a £250 million state-of-the-art international high speed rail interchange in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent. Three potential sites in the Etruria Valley were identified, which would have included full airport check-in and border controls for direct services to the continent via HS1 and the Channel Tunnel.

The building cost was based on the capital expense of the Liège-Guillemins HSR station in Belgium and a team of architects, led by Paul Bell, who had worked on major rail facilities in Kowloon and Korea, carried out an initial architectural and urban context design exercise for the station.

It would have had a central ‘inner island’ platform, serving both northbound (inbound into the UK) and southbound (outbound from the UK) international trains, with domestic HS2 services using the inner faces of two outer platforms. The outer faces of the outer platforms would have served ‘classic’ rail services.

As the station would have provided full passport control facilities, there was also the possibility that it could have acted as a remote terminal for Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham airports, all of which would be directly accessible from Stoke-on-Trent. According to the council, passengers would have been able to reach Heathrow in one hour, Birmingham Airport in 19 minutes, and Manchester Airport in 32 minutes, as well as London Euston in 55 minutes, Brussels in two hours 55 minutes and Paris in three hours 10 minutes.

The plans for the station also featured two multi-storey car parks, drop off and pick up areas and new access roads. The budget for the Stoke Route also included £250 million for improvements to transport links to and from the station, with the council suggesting a further £265 million of external funding could be levered in.

Suggested improvements included: A500 third lane sections – £175 million; New or upgraded junction on A500 to access station – £25 million; Improvements to Junctions 15 and 16 – £110 million; ‘Bus rapid transit’ system linking Keele to Hanley via Newcastle and HS2 station – £100 million; Local rail service and station improvements at Barlaston, Kidsgrove, Longton and Blythe Bridge – £25 million.

The council also suggested that brownfield sites at Chatterley Valley, Meaford, Alsager or the Axiom works site near the bet365 Stadium - then the Britannia Stadium - could be suitable for rolling stock maintenance depots.

Businesses from across North Staffordshire, from bet365 to Steelite and Wedgwood, backed the bid for a Stoke-on-Trent high speed rail station, and Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce chief executive Sara Williams wrote to members calling for their support. She said at the time: "Over the past three years, the chamber has led the campaign for HS2 connectivity for North Staffordshire, calling upon our politicians and local authorities to unite behind a strong business case.

"Our view is clear – if HS2 goes ahead, it is essential that North Staffordshire is connected to the service – our economy and future prosperity will be severely damaged if we are by-passed. The proposals announced are really exciting for North Staffordshire and they have the chamber’s full and active support. An HS2 station provides a massive boost to business and the local economy.

"It links us to international markets and ensures that Stoke-on-Trent is included in the club of high speed connected cities. It will accelerate our growth and prosperity. The private sector must get on board and back this bid."

However HS2 Ltd chairman Sir David Higgins published his HS2 Plus report, which was overwhelmingly in support of the Crewe route, in March 2014. This was just days before the full council approved paying consultants £150,000 to further develop the Stoke Route and ring-fencing a further £800,000 for further lobbying, in addition to the £109,000 that had already been spent up until that point.

Council leader Mohammed Pervez said he would not rule out a judicial review – a formal challenge in the High Court – if the Government’s decision went against the city, and almost 2,000 residents signed a petition backing the bid.

During the course of 2014 transport minister Baroness Susan Kramer, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin and shadow transport minister Richard Burden visited Stoke-on-Trent to look at the plans and meet council chief executive John van de Laarschot, politicians and other officials. And in October of that year a delegation of council and business leaders travelled to Westminster in a last-ditch effort to bring HS2 to Stoke-on-Trent - by which time they had already spent £560,000 building the case for the plans to be changed to include a station in the Potteries.

Mr Pervez said at the time: "HS2 provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect up the UK’s cities, and re-balance the economy by igniting the nation’s engines for growth, creating the maximum impact for jobs and prosperity, while minimising impact on our countryside and environment.

"The Stoke Route business case is absolutely compelling. We have had the best in the business rigorously analyse every aspect of our proposals and they have confirmed that it outperforms every other option on the table. It is imperative the Government makes the right choice."

But two weeks later Sir David delivered a near fatal blow to the city's bid by again recommending that the line should go through Crewe - and Michael Jones, leader of Cheshire East Council, called for a partnership between the authorities to maximise the economic benefits for the region.

A spokesman for HS2 Ltd said at the time: “Sir David Higgins recommended a route via Crewe because it would allow us to use the existing railway junction to run direct HS2 services to North Wales, Liverpool, the North West and Scotland. Stoke does not offer the same easy onward connections.

“We believe a route via Crewe would also be cheaper, as it would avoid the extra cost of demolitions and environmental protection that would be necessary to run the line through the centre of Stoke. We estimate the Stoke proposals could cost around £750m more than the Crewe alternative.

"The proposed Stoke route would also include significant realignment of the West Coast Main Line and the Trent and Mersey Canal as well as the added engineering challenges associated with old coal mines and salt workings."

Final confirmation came in November 2015 when the then Chancellor George Osborne revealed the HS2 route from Birmingham to Crewe would be ready in 2027 - six years ahead of schedule. The route of HS2 phase 2a, between Lichfield and Crewe, was set to cut a swathe through miles of Staffordshire countryside, affecting villages such as Madeley, Baldwins Gate and Whitmore Heath.

In total, the Labour-run council had spent more than £800,000 on the failed bid. Between 2013 and 2015 they forked out £789,295 on 'professional services', £6,366 on marketing, £3,138 on travel and £2,732 on workshops and meetings.

Labour’s Stoke-on-Trent South MP Rob Flello, who was part of the team who took the Stoke Route campaign to Parliament, said in 2015: “The city council was right to try to secure an HS2 station because accountants KPMG have said Stoke-on-Trent will be the only city in the country to lose money by not having a station – something in the order of £70 million.

“If we had known from the start the Government and HS2 Ltd would make sure Crewe would win no matter what, then things may have been different, but we were assured that this was a fair process. Of course, had we given up, we would have been accused of not fighting for what was best for the city.

"At least now we might end up with some HS2 trains diverting through Stoke-on-Trent, services the city would not have stood the slightest chance of getting had we not kicked up such a fuss."

Of course it now remains to be seen whether the route will even be coming north of Birmingham at all.

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References

1. ^{^} Burslem indoor market could finally be restored 20 years after roof caved in (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Prince's Trust rejects MP's claim it's 'moving out' of Hanley base (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Sign up for email alerts from StokeonTrentLive direct to your inbox here (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)