City will be well placed to reap HS2 rewards

the time it takes to travel to Manchester to just over an hour, Leeds to 49 minutes and London 45 minutes. And it will almost triple the number of train seats between Birmingham and London during rush hour.

Phase One – the stretch between Birmingham and London – will be complete in 2026. But this city isn’t waiting until then to start seizing the benefits.

Last month, accountancy firm Deloitte published its annual Birmingham Crane Survey, which looks at development taking place across the city. It reported that the number of cranes on Birmingham’s skyline is currently at record levels – always a good indicator of a growing local economy – and cited HS2 as one major reason for the investment taking place across the city.

A few of the cranes counted by Deloitte’s accountants have been helping build the new High Speed Rail College in the Science Park at Eastside. After the college opens its doors in September, it will give 1,000 students a year the training they need to build HS2. And we expect that many of those enrolling at the college will come from the local area.

Meanwhile, we have already moved HS2 Ltd’s project headquarters to Snow Hill in the city centre, bringing 1,000 high-skilled jobs. But it’s not just Birmingham, mayoral candidate Andy Street has stressed the importance of every part of the West Midlands benefitting from this project. And thanks to £4 billion growth deal funding he has already committed to rail, metro and bus improvements linked to HS2, improving transport to HS2 stations.

So though the HS2 Bill was given the seal of approval in Westminster, we might say that HS2 itself will be a railway made in Birmingham.

The political debate about the first phase of HS2 is drawing to a close, and we are about to hand the project over to the architects and engineers – many of whom will be based in this city.

These workers will establish the first construction sites at a handful of places along the route. In other areas, we will continue reaching agreements with those whose property will be required for the line, ensuring they get the compensation and support they’re due.

In fact, it’s thanks to the HS2 Bill that we have already been improving the effect of the project along the line of route. We made over 400 changes, from the removal of a viaduct near Lichfield, to 1.6 miles of extra tunnel in the Chilterns, and making room for a new Metro connection at the Curzon Street station.

The Bill gave MPs, peers and the public the chance to put the project to the test. HS2 passed that test and the process helped us refine the project. I am delighted that the city of Birmingham will now do so much get the project built. Chris Grayling is Secretary of State

for Transport