The government has unveiled proposals for the second phrase of the controversial £32 billion HS2 high-speed rail network which is designed to cut journey times between cities and boost regional business.
The preferred route for the second Y-shaped phase runs northwards from Birmingham and will have stops at Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport. The high-speed trains will also stop at Toton in the East Midlands Sheffield and Leeds.
There had been speculation that the high-speed trains might pass through Wilmslow and Alderley Edge however it has been revealed today that, whilst the route will pass through the Tatton constituency, the nearest stop will be the new airport station.
It will be located only a few miles outside Wilmslow, between Junctions 5 and 6 of the M56, and enable passengers to reach London in less than an hour.
HS2 trains will pass through Crewe, where a connection with the West Coast Main Line will be provided just south of Crewe, with the main line continuing in a tunnel under the town heading north. It will then cross over the M6 just north of junction 19, heading past Mere and High Legh before crossing the M56 to the airport station, located between Warburton Green and Davenport Green.
Heading north from the airport the line will enter a seven-and-a-half-mile tunnel, surfacing a short distance from the new station alongside the existing station at Manchester Piccadilly.
High speed trains will travel up to 225mph when the lines first open, with the potential to increase this to 250mph which is is faster than the French TGV and Japanese bullet train.
Journey times between Manchester and London will be slashed from two hours and eight minutes to one hour and eight minutes whilst those travelling from the new interchange station at Manchester Airport will reach London in fifty-nine minutes.
HS2 will also provide high capacity services for passengers with up to eighteen trains per hour, each carrying up to 1,100 passengers.
The Department of Transport has said that the project, which is expected to cost £32.7 billion, will support the creation of 29,700 jobs, as well as 3,100 houses, at the new station in Manchester city centre and 300 jobs at the Manchester Airport station.
Council Leader Michael Jones said today: "This is great news for Cheshire East and for Crewe in particular. This decision firmly demonstrates the government's belief in Crewe and puts Crewe firmly at the centre of the North West's growing economy. HS2 consolidates Cheshire East at the most connected area in the UK.
"Your MPs George Osborne, Edward Timpson and I, have fought hard to keep the line away from Knutsford and Tatton, which we have been successful in achieving. Throughout the process we raised concerns about the line of route and raised the profile for a common sense solution, which I believe we have achieved.
"I will continue this fight to ensure we continue to get the best deal for all the people of Cheshire East.
"This is great news for the 44,000 people who live in Cheshire East and own a business in the area and beyond. It is great news if you are seeking to invest.
"We already have international companies such as Waters and AstraZeneca, who have chosen to come here and expand their operations, and this news today reinforces the fact that Cheshire East is open for business
"The history of HS2 was that it was always coming to Manchester and to the airport and as a result of today's announcement our industries will gain from the airport station, allowing our companies and residents accessibility to London via the airport in an hour.
"Those living in the north of the Borough will also benefit from much-improved road and rail access to Manchester Airport.
"High Speed 2 is fantastic news for most of our residents. However, as we celebrate the news for Crewe, we should also strive to ensure any disruption is minimised and also that our beautiful land in Cheshire East is protected.
"I will work hard to minimise the impact along the proposed route and ensure that residents, businesses and landowners affected will receive the appropriate compensation in a timely manner. I will also be working hard to ensure that the environmental impact along the new line is minimised.
"I will now continue to lobby hard for a new dedicated HS2 station at Crewe in the tunnel directly under the existing station, creating a fully-integrated hub station between HS2 and the existing Rail network. This solution would provide even greater connectivity for Crewe, Cheshire East and the whole of the North West and North Wales, with a focus on a much wider range of destinations.
"The estimated cost of a hub station at Crewe is £200m. The cost for UK plc of not doing this – as a result of the loss of economic performance and social costs in areas such as North Wales, Stoke and Liverpool – could be as much as £2 billion. I will be developing this argument strongly as part of our process of active lobbying for the new station.
"With this 360 degree connectivity secured, I believe that we will have then achieved the maximum economic benefits for UK plc and for the local people and businesses of Cheshire East."
The government and HS2 Ltd will work with MPs, local authorities and station city delivery partners, as well as environment and heritage organisations, to refine these proposals.
A consultation on the preferred route, stations and depots will begin later this year and final route will be chosen by the end of 2014.
Click here to view maps of the proposed route.
Further information can be found at www.hs2.org.uk.
Updated: 23.48pm, Tuesday 29th January.
Cheshire East Council has issued the following today statement today:
"In a press release issued yesterday (January 28) Cheshire East Council stated that George Osborne had fought hard to keep the HS2 rail link out of his constituency in Knutsford and Tatton.
In fact, this is not the case and MP George Osborne had no say whatsoever over the proposed route of the HS2 link. We are happy to set the record straight."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
And why do we have to wait 20+ years for it? With spare capacity in the construction industry and the economy in the doldrums, now is the time to invest in the nation's infrastructure.
This is a project of vision, the sort of enterprise our confident Victorian forebears would be proud of! I only hope future politicians are brave enough to make it happen.
Wilmslow now needs to campaign for a better train service to the Airport in order to pick up London trains and also those going north without the need to negotiate Piccadilly.
By the look of the maps just published the new line won't really go to the airport either. It seems to pass on the other side of the M56, which is a bit of a hike with suitcases.
I must confess I will start to believe in this when we see a more serious time scale. The Victorians built most of the current main line network in a period roughly equal to the time before HS2 is even due to start building, and even major individual lines often went from planning to opening in three of four years, despite far less advanced construction technology. I come originally from Staffordshire. There the North Staffordshire Railway Company was incorporated in 1845. It got the Act of Parliament that allowed it to build its two main lines in 1846 and the lines opened in stages through 1848 and 1849. By comparison the "World at One" on Radio 4 this lunchtime had a Government estimate that HS2 would finally reach its planned terminus, Glasgow, in the 2050s! The idea seems to be to look busy, whilst kicking any expense far beyond their likely term of office.
Presumably the bay-platforms at the current airport station will have to be made into through-platforms in order to construct the line to the new station.
I have yet to see a set of figures which even begin to make any sense, from either side of the argument.
The Unemployed in the EU, Spain, Poland, Romania will pile in for the many jobs, as the Navies did for the canals. Also the planning will hardly get off the ground with the NIMBYS already working on their protests, as shown on the BBC news today. Finally the I understand the rail fairs will be a premium price to save you 50 mins time. Only the MP's BBC staff and business people will be able to afford the fairs.
Amongst others, Ashley, just north of Knutsford will be encircled by the M56 and the new railway and Agden will be within a huge triangle of railway lines.
The leader of CEBC also states that Crewe will be within 50 minutes of London, except he forgets to say that there are no plans for a station in Crewe, just a depot. Given that the new line will be tunnelled under Crewe, I find it hard to imagine that they can economically create an interchange at significant depth which will serve Crewe and the surrounding area without substantially increasing the reported travel times between London and Manchester.
As for Ashley, I should think the constant roar of traffic from the adjacent M56 is far worse than any sound of a high speed train passing in seconds. Surely it is better to build the line where possible in areas which are already noise-polluted. This route does that, largely following the route of the existing West Coast Main Line and the M56 motorway.
The suprise was the inclusion of the MCr Airport station so close to the Manchester terminus. I cannot see this will attract many travellers away from Heathrow or Gatwick, but it may presage further expansion of Mcr airport to European hubs & worldwide destinations and will add a few minutes to the overal rail journey time Mcr-Lon. Sir Richard Leese, leader of GMC, is claiming that inclusion of Mcr airport was the result of successful lobby negotiation.
The declared aim of this Govt is to redress the North South divide & connect London with Scotland (Glasgow/Edinbugh) via HS2 part 3. By 2020 may not be part of the UK.
I would suggest that East & West Coast mainlines to Glasgow/Edinburgh are conneted via HS2 asap, with periphal downstream HS2 connections provided at a later stage.
HS2 track could be laid alongside existing track to minimise cost/impact on environment.
The result of Victorian Ind private rail provision meant that diff terminii (Picailly,Central, Victoria) were not directly conectsd
A direct rail link between V ictoria & Piccadily has yet to ne cofirmed.