Alternative northern leg HS2 plans to be discussed

One alternative is to enhance the West Coast Mainline

The transport secretary is meeting with metro mayors later to discuss alternative rail schemes after the scrapping of HS2 north of Birmingham.

Louise Haigh will meet with West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to talk about plans after the new route between the regions was cancelled.

She made it clear any plan to resurrect HS2 to run north of Birmingham to Crewe would not happen.

Crewe was due to be a calling point on the original HS2, before the northern leg was cancelled by the previous government. The high speed line will run from London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street.

Earlier this year, Burnham and then West Midlands Mayor Andy Street confirmed they were working with a private consortium of businesses to draw up plans to better connect the two cities.

They said they were looking at three alternatives: enhance the West Coast Main Line; bypasses at the most congested parts of the line; and a completely new line possibly following the track of the cancelled HS2 route.

Connor Naismith, the Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, has written to ministers calling for Crewe to be included in any alternative to the northern leg of HS2.

"But I'm very clear we're not resurrecting the plans for HS2, and HS2 Limited isn't getting any further work beyond what's been commissioned to Euston," Haigh told Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday.