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Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
MAYORS Andy Burnham and Andy Street expect to set out their options for improving rail connectivity between the West Midlands and Greater Manchester in a meeting with Transport Secretary Mark Harper later this spring, possibly as soon as March.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street outlined three options at a press briefing in Birmingham on February 7, during which he also said he wanted to stick with HS2’s planned 2041 Manchester opening for his alternative plans.
The first option is to enhance the West Coast Main Line to improve some of its most constrained sections. Street said this had minimal capital cost and relatively little advantage.
The second option would have bypasses built around WCML constraints such as Stafford. The first bypass might be formed by extending HS2’s Phase 1 line beyond Handsacre Junction, where it is planned to join the WCML.
The third is to build a segregated new line, which Street later explained was based on HS2’s route north. He said: “Whether it follows exactly the same line still is to be confirmed but, in principle, it’s roughly the same line.”
He added: “The key difference is obviously the question of the speed the line would be. And a lot of the cost in HS2, if you ask the design engineers, has come from this very uncompromising point about the speed. If you are prepared to compromise some of the speed, you do get a slightly longer travel time, but you do get
a substantial option of reducing cost. That’s the option that is being worked through.”
Both mayors claimed that doing nothing to increase capacity between the city regions was not an option, with the West Coast Main Line and M6 motorway full.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said doing nothing would leave a “serious transport headache for the rest of the century”.
The pair strongly argued that something needed to be done to fill the gap between their two regions.
Earlier in the week, Burnham had described the gap as “Handsacre to High Leigh”, which suggests they are looking beyond HS2 Phase 2a’s intermediate end point at Crewe and onto Phase 2b territory that takes the line into a new station at Manchester Piccadilly, and which government now expects Northern Powerhouse Rail to deliver - although that project remains in its infancy.
However, they were adamant that the plan they are developing with private sector help was not HS2.
Answering a question from RAIL, Street said: “We are not making a case for HS2 north of Birmingham. I must be categoric about it - this is not about rescuing HS2 north of Birmingham, this is about the alternative answer to the question that has been put. We have to be crystal clear on that.”
To the same question, Burnham said: “We a
