20.11.14
No direct high-speed line to Liverpool – Higgins
Sir David Higgins has stated that there are currently no plans to develop a direct high-speed line to Liverpool as part of HS2.
Speaking to the House of Commons Transport Committee this week, he reiterated that high-speed trains will run directly into the city. “However, the last stretch will not be high-speed line from the West Coast Line from Crewe,” he said.
While giving his evidence in Manchester, the HS2 chairman stated that he is not putting a proposal forward on this to the government at the moment. Instead, he will be looking at what happens north of Crewe “to the junction that approaches Runcorn and seeing what plans there are to upgrade that and seeing how those would work”.
The former Network Rail chief executive defended his position by saying that building a direct high-speed line to Liverpool would have “consequences” for the freight coming into the city’s ports.
“If it is purely a high-speed rail line in there [Liverpool] it has some impacts, of a considerable nature, on the freight capacity. We have to consider the freight lines coming in through that corridor as well,” he said. “We’re looking at the freight challenge with Liverpool with the new port expansions and connections through there.”
However, business leaders fear that if Liverpool does not get a direct HS2 line it could lose out to other northern cities in terms of inward investment.
It has also been estimated that a direct link could offer a boost of more than £8bn to the Liverpool city region economy and create up to 26,000 new jobs.
Earlier this week, Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister, who was also dubbed the Minister for Merseyside, called for Liverpool to get the “full benefits” of HS2.
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