HS2’s loss could still be the East andWest Midlands’ gain
IT looks clear that the HS2 high speed rail line is to be significantly downgraded. But there’s a silver lining, because it means another rail project which could provide huge benefits to the Midlands is likely to go ahead.
As we reported in July, the Department for Transport (DfT) has ordered HS2 Ltd to stop work on the eastern leg of the line, including the section from Birmingham to the East Midlands, and on to Yorkshire.
Work on the north west section of the project to Manchester, including planning and legal preparations, is going ahead. The original plan was to build the eastern and North West sections at the same time.
Work on the eastern leg has been suspended, not cancelled, until a decision about its future is announced.
However, it was reported over the weekend that the decision has been made – the Treasury has put a stop to the eastern leg, in to save £40 million.
We’re still awaiting a formal announcement. That will come when the Government finally publishes a long-awaited document called the Integrated Rail Plan for the Midlands and the North, which was originally due by the end of 2020.
However, if HS2 is downgraded, it does mean that a separate rail plan designed partly to improve links between the West Midlands and the East Midlands is more likely to happen.
This is a £2bn project called the Midlands Engine Hub, championed by a body called Midlands Connect. Midlands Connect develops transport projects, working with local councils and leaders such as West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.
The Midlands Rail Hub would improve services between Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region, including Hereford and Worcester.
It would also provide more trains to the west of Britain, including Bristol and Cardiff.
And, crucially, it would mean increased services between the West Midlands and Leicester, Derby and
Nottingham, in the East Midlands.
This is important because there’s widespread agreement that a major failing of our current transport network is poor connections between the east and west.
Both the East Coast Main Line and West Coast Main Line connect the north with the south.
The same tends to be true of our major motorways.
HS2 is designed partly to strengthen those north-south connections, because it will provide a second rail line running more or less parallel to the West Coast Main Line.
But it was also designed to provide much-needed connections between the East Midlands and the West Midlands, which the Government, and a range of experts, say will help the economy to grow in both regions.
The eastern leg of HS2 woul have seen high speed trains run from Birmingham’s HS2 station at Curzon Street to a new station at Toton, on the outskirts of Nottingham, which would also have rail services to central Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.
But now, it seems, it is to be cancelled. And that means the case for an alternative method of improving east-west links, provided by the Midlands Rail Hub, becomes stronger.
What’s involved?
The aim is to improve connections between the economic centres of Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry, Derby, Hereford and Worcester, and to improve services to Wales and the South West.
Initial plans suggested the journey time between Birmingham and Nottingham will be cut from 72 minutes to 59 minutes, and there will be one extra train per hour.
Journey times between Birmingham and Leicester will be cut from 55 minutes to 42 minutes, and there will be two extra trains per hour.
The journey from Birmingham to Hereford will be cut from 85 minutes to 65 minutes, with an extra train per hour.
And there will be shorter journeys between Birmingham and Worcester, with the time cut from 40 minutes to 35 minutes, and an extra train per hour.
Train services between Birmingham and Derby, Bristol and Cardiff will also be improved.
So will services between Coventry and Leicester, and Coventry and Nottingham.
The Department for Transport has already allocated Midlands Connect £20 million to work on the plans.
That’s a lot of money but apparently that’s how much it costs simply to draw up proposals in detail.
These proposals will then allow the Department for Transport to make a firm decision on whether to go ahead with the scheme.
When will we get an answer? Chancellor Rishi Sunak is to present a spending review to Parliament on October 27 or soon afterwards.
It may be that this is when the Integrated Rail Plan will finally be published.
We also know that Boris Johnson is personally leading work on a “levelling up” white paper, assisted by MP Neil O’Brien (who happens to represent a Leicestershire seat).
The publication would be another suitable moment for the announcement of the rail plans. It’s also possible the levelling up proposals and spending review will be closely co-ordinated.
MPs are currently away from Parliament due to the recess. But once they return, the Government will certainly be under pressure to reveal what it plans to do about HS2 and, if the high speed network is to be downgraded, what it plans to do for the Midlands instead.
It means the case for an alternative method of improving east-west links, provided by the Midlands Rail Hub, becomes stronger...