Rishi Sunak promises more rail, road and bus links

A worker walks outside the HS2 construction site at Euston Station in London

The prime minister has pledged billions for transport projects across the country after scrapping the northern leg of the HS2 high speed rail link.

Rishi Sunak said in a speech at the Conservative party conference that £36bn would be spent on alternative rail, road and bus schemes instead.

It came after he confirmed that the Birmingham-Manchester leg of HS2 would be ditched after weeks of speculation.

He said the decision was due to huge costs and long delays.

But it has led to accusations the government is abandoning its mission to "level up" different areas of the UK outside London.

In his speech, Mr Sunak said the government "will reinvest every single penny" saved from cancelling the remainder of HS2, which he said totals £36bn.

"Every region outside of London will receive the same or more government investment than they would have done under HS2, with quicker results," he said, although it is not clear when this money will be made available.

The high speed rail project was intended to link London, the Midlands and the north of England.

But in his speech on Wednesday, the prime minister said that east-west links were "far more important" than those linking up the north and the south of England.

He said that his plans would see "hundreds" of alternative projects funded, such as:

• Building the Midlands rail hub, connecting 50 stations

• Upgrading the A1, the A2, the A5 and the M6

• Building a Leeds tram system

• Funding the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and 70 other road schemes

• Electrifying train lines in north Wales

• Resurfacing roads across the country

• Extending the £2 bus fare until the end of December 2024, which was due to rise to £2.50

He also said that he would protect £12bn to "better connect" Manchester and Liverpool - although this won't necessarily be with high speed rail.

The prime minister said on Wednesday it would be possible to get from Manchester to Hull in 84 minutes on a fully-electrified line under the new plans, known as "Network North". But it is not yet clear what the next few years will hold for the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) project, which aims to improve connections between Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

A newly-published government document says that it will now be down to local leaders to decide how to use the money.

NPR was originally designed to intersect with HS2, using a section of the high speed line for a complicated section through central Manchester.

But Mr Sunak said that changes to travel seen since the coronavirus pandemic meant that the economic case for HS2 "has been massively weakened".

The first part of HS2 between west London and Birmingham, which is already being built, will be completed given how far along that section is.

The scheme as a whole has faced delays, cost increases and cuts, with the planned eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds being axed in late 2021.

The last official estimate of HS2 costs, excluding the cancelled eastern section, added up to about £71bn. But this was in 2019 prices so it does not account for the rise in costs for materials and wages since then.

Promising to get a grip on costs, Mr Sunak said the HS2 rail link will now:

• Only run to Birmingham before joining the existing West Coast Main Line to Manchester

• Not run to East Midlands Parkway

• Definitely run to Euston in central London, rather than terminating at Old Oak Common in the west of the capital

• Have just six platforms at London Euston for high-speed trains, instead of 11.

Laurence Turner, head of research at the GMB union, said it was "essential" that the planned HS2 route was now protected "so that a future government can reverse this disastrous decision".

Northern leaders also hit out at the decision to axe HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester, with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham saying there was "frustration and anger" in the region.

He said: "It always seems that people here where I live and where I kind of represent can be treated as second class citizens when it comes to transport."

Businesses in Liverpool called for "viable plans" to support them after the speech on Wednesday.

The Liverpool BID Company, which represents more than 800 businesses in the city centre, said it had been offered "no specific plans, no specific timelines and no promise of impact."

The prime minister also came under fire from a number of senior Conservatives in recent days, who urged him not to scrap the northern section of the rail link and said the cancellation would be a "great tragedy" that would put off potential investors into the UK.