Transport Secretary Chris Grayling confirmed Britain’s future high speed rail lines to the north-west, East Midlands and Yorkshire. The decision will mean new connections between Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and the East Midlands – with all of them being linked to London by the line. The Transport Secretary confirmed the new route for the eastern section and plans to serve the station in Sheffield city centre.
The new line will free up thousands of extra seats and additional services on local lines. New research shows the impact of HS2 could more than double rush hour seats from Manchester Piccadilly towards Stoke and Crewe; and from Leeds towards Wakefield. It could also almost double peak seats from London to Peterborough and east coast destinations further north.
The government has also asked HS2 Ltd to take forward the provision of a northern junction back on to HS2, which would support delivery of a city-centre to city-centre connection between Leeds-Sheffield in less than 30 minutes as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail. New plans for the route to Crewe include: the possibility of building a new hub station in Crewe to improve connections across the north-west; and potentially introducing HS2 services to Stoke.
The government remains on track to open the link from London to Birmingham in 2026, the route to Crewe in 2027 and the routes to the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Manchester in 2033. Preparatory work on Phase One has already commenced, with major construction starting in 2018 to 2019.
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