A Stoke-on-Trent MP says the HS2 northern leg should be scrapped and the billions of pounds saved from its construction poured into improving existing rail services.
Jack Brereton, Stoke-on-Trent South MP, said that, in his opinion, the building of Phases 2a and 2b from Birmingham to Manchester, via Crewe, would potentially reduce services through Staffordshire and the entire northwest.
Instead, he told a ‘Meet the MP’ event organised by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, that the £28 billion allocated to the phase should instead be used to improve the West Coast mainline and east-west services rail infrastructure on the North Staffordshire Line – in a bid to boost connectivity.
In contrast, Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce has been actively lobbying for Phase 2 saying it will boost the local economy and lead to the creation of many jobs.
It comes as massive speculation in the national media suggests Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will scrap the project due to soaring costs – and may announce his final decision as early as today (Tuesday).
The MP explained his stance to Chamber members during the informative meeting hosted at Valentine Clays, Fenton. Other topics on the agenda included improvements to the A50, A500 and M6 junction 15 as well as the potential for new railway stations throughout Stoke-on-Trent.
There was also an update from the Chamber on the Local Skills Improvement Plan, which it is delivering locally.
Asked about his thoughts on HS2, Mr Brereton said: “It’s been confirmed that Phase one will be completed to the Handsacre link, in southern Staffordshire, which I agree is crucial as that will benefit Staffordshire.
“However, after that I think we need to get rid of Phase 2. It will not benefit Staffordshire at all. In fact, Phase 2 would potentially reduce our services.
“And that’s not just us in Staffordshire – a whole swathe of services up the North-West corridor will be dramatically reduced according to HS2’s proposals.
“In addition, Crewe would go from an originally promised five HS2 trains to two per hour, which would also remove interconnectivity. The furthest north you’d be able to get from Crewe in a single journey is Lancaster under proposals under HS2.
“In addition, Phase 2a construction traffic would gridlock Junction 15 of the M6 for two years, and this would cause massive disruption to the local economy.”
Jack added: “So, what I’m saying is stop Phase 2 and invest the £28 billion-plus you would save into the West Coast main line, particularly at Crewe.
“Then you could run HS2 services off at Handsacre to all destinations. That means you could deliver high speed services sooner for the same or lower cost and similar journey time savings to what HS2 can achieve.”
“We could then achieve a 63-minute journey time from Stoke to Euston, which would be incredible, and avoid the disruption of the construction works of Phase 2.”
More Meet the MP events are being organised by the Chamber throughout the autumn. For more details click on the events page here.
It would be interesting to hear his ideas around the Junction 15, M6 – as would my neighbours.