Mayors unveil rail options after HS2 line scrapped

The mayors said capacity was becoming an issue on the West Coast Main Line

The mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands have unveiled three options to improve rail connections between the two regions following the scrapping of the planned HS2 link.

Andy Burnham and Andy Street confirmed they were working with a private consortium of businesses to draw up the plans.

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.

During a joint press conference in Birmingham on Wednesday, the mayors said they were currently assessing the cost and benefits of each option.

Conservative mayor Mr Street said: “There is a real benefit in one of those three…and we believe there is a substantial way forward.”

Both agreed the increasing congestion on the area's railways and the M6 meant something had to be done to free up capacity, particularly for freight.

“There is no question that better connectivity provides better economic opportunity,” Mr Street added.

Andy Street said there was a "real benefit" in one of the three options as they weighed them up

Labour’s Mr Burnham said doing nothing was “not an option” due to the current issues with capacity on the network.

“Doing nothing will be damaging to economic growth in the regions and would mean the West Midlands and Greater Manchester are set back when compared to other areas of a similar size,” he said.

“It would also leave the UK with a major headache in the future.”

The proposed bypasses would be built at the northern and southern ends of where the cancelled HS2 route between Birmingham and Manchester would have been.

Mr Street said if a new line was built then it would be predominantly for passengers and would help to free up capacity for freight on the existing West Coast Main Line.

The Tory mayor said it would possibly follow the cancelled HS2 route but the trains would be of a lower specification and slower, to make construction cheaper.

No further specifics about the options or how much they would cost have been revealed.

Andy Burnham said doing nothing was not an option

Both mayors confirmed discussions have been held with the government and said ministers were “open-minded” about the work they were doing.

They said the plans were being drawn up by the private consortium, headed by former HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins, and would be submitted to the transport secretary at the end of next month.

The businesses involved in the private consortium are: Arup, Arcadis, EY, Skanska, Dragadus, Addleshaw Goddard and Mace.

HS2 Ltd and Network Rail were also confirmed to be involved.

Analysis by Kaleigh Watterson, BBC political reporter, Cheshire

After much talk in recent weeks about plans for an alternative to HS2 from the two mayors, we have now had an insight into what they are looking into.

The mayors were keen to stress this is very much at an early stage - although both Mr Burnham and Mr Street spoke about their optimism.

One of the big winners of HS2 was due to be Crewe.

One option could see some new track between Crewe and Stockport and Andy Street said a debate about Crewe “remains on the table”.

But will the town still receive the same benefits under these proposals?

That's one of the many questions that we have not had answers to yet - but what is clear is a willingness from the two mayors, from two different parts of the country and from two different sides of the political spectrum, to work together to improve Britain’s creaking railways.