A host of transport projects across Staffordshire are included in proposals to spend money from the scrapped leg of HS2.
As reported by Daily Focus, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday confirmed the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high-speed rail line will no longer be going ahead.
Instead, he has pledged to invest in hundreds of other transport schemes across the country.
This includes the Midlands Rail Hub – a rail improvement scheme for faster, better and more frequent connections across the Midlands – and keeping the £2 bus fare cap across the country until the end of December 2024 instead of rising to £2.50 as planned.
Part of those plans include a Network North project to join up northern cities by rail.
Specific projects in Staffordshire mentioned at the launch include:
- Reopening closed Beeching lines, including the Stoke to Leek line.
- A new station will be built at Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, on the existing Crewe to Derby line.
- As part of £2.2 billion fund to transform local transport, there will be more demand-driven buses in rural areas and a refurbishment of Kidsgrove and Longport stations, near Stoke-on-Trent.
- Fixing two major pinch points on the A5: Funding a stretch of road between Hinckley and Tamworth, linking the M1 and M6, that serves more than one million people.
- Funding will also be provided for improvements to the A50/500 corridor between Stoke and Derby, cutting congestion for the 90,000 drivers who use the road each day and ensuring smoother journeys for drivers and freight around Rolls Royce, Toyota, Magna Park, and other major local employers.
The following initiatives for the region were also announced:
- Contactless and smart ticketing: £100 million will be shared across the North and Midlands to support seamless travel by enabling contactless or smartcard payment.
- A Midlands Road Fund worth nearly £650 million will be launched for new roads.
- £230 million for more bus services: Increased frequency of bus services in the Midlands.
- £2.2 billion for the Midlands to combat potholes.
- £1 billion more for local transport funding in West Midlands.
