Council Leader welcomes HS2 station boost for Crewe

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Cheshire East Council has welcomed the recommendation that Crewe should be the site of a North West hub station for the HS2 high-speed rail network.

HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins today said he would be advising the Government that the new station should be built and operational by 2027, five years earlier than first expected.

Sir David said journey times between Crewe and London would be cut to just 55 minutes, 35 minutes quicker than the fastest current journey.

Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, said the new station and the investment that goes with it would have a transformational effect on Cheshire East and the wider North West region.

Councillor Jones said: "The Crewe HS2 Superhub will produce 64,000 jobs and boost the North West's economic output by £3.5 billion per annum. It will act as a major gateway for the region, energising the northern powerhouse.

"Cheshire East Council is already working on a strong programme of local and strategic infrastructure Improvements to create a High Growth City around Crewe, but the Superhub will have a transformational effect.

"There are more than 800 acres of prime development land near to the Superhub station. Overall, we believe that HS2 will unlock development sites throughout Cheshire and North Staffordshire for new offices, factories, warehouses shops and new homes.

"The newly located station creates the opportunity for a well-planned, multi-modal station interchange, with new transit links into Crewe.

"We can also introduce new connectivity to other towns in Cheshire."

The leader stressed that this was not just about Crewe and the borough of Cheshire East but the wider region including Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire.

"I look forward to meeting with and involving Stoke and Staffordshire councils and the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce in developing further plans to enable the people of Staffordshire to benefit from this exciting project.

"I agree with Sir David when he says in his report that Crewe has been a major railway intersection since Victorian times offering connectivity to North Wales, Merseyside, Staffordshire and the North West in general.

"He has said that the Stoke option would be too costly and would not provide the connectivity required.

"But we have every intention of engaging with Staffordshire County Council and Stoke City Council so that they can share in the benefit."

Sir David has further recommended that the Government considers asking HS2 to look at the possibility of running classic compatible high speed services to Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield and Stockport to link with HS2 via the West Coast mainline.

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Kathryn Blackburn
Monday 27th October 2014 at 5:13 pm
Has Sir David also solved the problem of where the funds are going to come from for a Stoke high speed link, would that be from the Border Agency budget or would it be the National Health Service Budget - oh no both are underfunded already- 50 billion for HS2 when we are 1 trillion in debt, whilst our roads go un- repaired, our schools and hospitals go un-built, building houses without first ensuring those houses have essential services nearby. These are the incredible days we live in. Be sure you remember this when you vote people of Cheshire.
Terry Roeves
Wednesday 29th October 2014 at 4:10 pm
Nothing revealed as to the economic implications for the north of the borough. This must make a huge difference to the 20 year CEC core plan and where employment land and housing might be allocated. We are all looking forward to our period of consultation.
Silence is not golden Cllr Jones.
Bob Bracegirdle
Wednesday 29th October 2014 at 4:35 pm
Are we really going to build this potential White Elephant?

Perhaps we do need it but after years of closing railways and reducing capacity and, crime of crimes, allowing rights of way to be abandoned to building, someone should at least say sorry. I'd rather reopen the Midland line to Matlock and Derby to provide a direct route to the East Midlands city of Leicester.

Note that at this time it is proposed to completely abandon all hope of reopening the Woodhead route to Sheffield by blocking the tunnel. Are we crazy?
Simon Worthington
Wednesday 29th October 2014 at 4:36 pm
I recall the promises of huge regeneration for Crewe when the channel tunnel was being built (dug?) in the late 1980's. We were to have trains direct to Europe, a huge interchange, massive commercial "development" etc. etc. Then London (centre of the known universe and well known black hole for public transport funds - remember the theft of regional funds for the Olympics, £50million from Manchester alone) found out about the plan and decided that there was no money for the north or any need for us to get trains to Europe without having to traverse and spend in London. This nonsense will not happen. Maybe the much needed tracks will be built to ensure more people (mugs) can commute to London but little else.
Pete Taylor
Wednesday 29th October 2014 at 4:56 pm
HS3 without HS2 makes far more sense... and no need to have those fancy trains, just the regular fast ones will do. We can't afford vanity projects.

Yes Crewe was to have been the Northern end of the Eurostar service and we were all to be in clover. I actually saw a Eurostar train pass thro' Crewe once; it had come from Preston and passed through on the fast line without stopping. There appeared to be at least six passengers on board; that "service" didn't last long.

Scrap HS2, scrap Trident: new hospitals anybody?
Vince Chadwick
Wednesday 29th October 2014 at 8:02 pm
HS2 is no 'vanity project'. Yes, post Beeching BR closed many lines which today would have been useful, and were not on the Doctor's hit list. Woodhead and the Midland Main Line Buxton to Derby were among them, and the now very busy Settle Carlisle almost became another BR victim. They also singled many lines and took out junctions and signalling as governments of all colours robbed rail of investment in favour of road.

Privatisation removed BR, who were always last in the queue at the Treasury and therefore never got the funds they needed even to maintain the railway, never mind grow it. Since then we have seen the light, and realised that an effective rail system is vital for economic growth. This is a truth the rest of Europe, and many other countries such as China, have known for decades and we are, as a result, decades behind them with modern high speed rail. The only HS line we have is a branch of the French system into London via the channel tunnel.

But better late than never out rail system has undergone an amazing renaissance in recent years; closed lines re-opened (not [yet] Woodhead or Buxton - Derby) and many more re-doubled. The Trent Valley, Stafford to Rugby, was even quadrupled to give us sub 2 hour services Wilmslow to London with modern, reliable trains. And everywhere we see modern,

But the railway has become a victim of its own success. Passenger numbers are up to 3 times what they were in BR days. The main north-south link, the West Coast Main Line is almost full. Rail freight's vigorous growth is being curtailed by lack of capacity on the line, and passenger traffic is approaching saturation.

HS2 should have been built decades ago. It's a no-brainer. Just look overseas. A national railway system without HS rail is like a road system without motorways.
Bob Bracegirdle
Thursday 30th October 2014 at 7:46 am
All I want is an admission from politicians that mistakes were made in the past. One MP said to me we couldn't have predicted this growth when railways were in decline 40 years ago. I retorted that how can they assume they know what conditions will be in 40 years time, which is when HS2 will be finished (they hope). The "crime" was not closing the service, it was not mothballing the routes for 50 years so that they easily be reopened. What madness to destroy and lose the Great Central route at Continental loading gauge built so expensively through the centre of Nottingham. What madness to build houses on the Oxford to Cambridge line at Potton and now be looking for a new and expensive route to reopen it. There are many more examples.

And yes, the Treasury is the main guilty party. It always was. But remember too that BR had nowhere near the subsidies that our so called privatised lines have today. Oh, wait a minute. Some are State run, it's just not our State!
Simon Worthington
Friday 31st October 2014 at 10:33 am
The main culprit was the rogue Ernest Marples. The Treasury is only to blame in as much as you can't make profit out of the railways as the customers will leave wheras the roads are a cash cow. I believe the approximate figures are a tax take of around £50billion and a spend of less than £10billion - fantastic business - funds over one third of the health service. The only bright point is that many small villages that lost the rail service in the 1960's have remained unspoilt because there is no demand for commuter housing and therefore no "development".
Vince Chadwick
Friday 31st October 2014 at 6:11 pm
Ah yes, Earnest Marples; a motorway building contractor as Minister of Transport, and the man who recruited Beeching to wield the axe. Says it all, really.