Govt to revive Manchester-Birmingham high-speed rail link
The government is set to announce the revival of long-term plans to build a high-speed service between Manchester and the West Midlands – but will hope to learn lessons from the overrunning HS2 project.
Fresh government proposals to revive a proposed high-speed rail link between Birmingham and the North West are expected to be launched on Wednesday, alongside the revival of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project.
A high-speed link between Manchester and Birmingham was originally proposed for inclusion in the HS2 scheme, before the northern leg of the project was scrapped by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government in 2023, in a bid to reduce costs.
The current HS2 programme is in the middle of a year-long reset in a bid to get the project back on course, with current final budget estimates expecting to at least double the railway’s initial £40bn build costs.
Little detail is expected to be announced by the government, other than a long-term intention to build the scheme, intended to support the NPR project for high-speed services between Liverpool, Manchester, and Yorkshire.
In a statement last month issued in response to comments from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who pleaded with the government to press ahead with NPR, a government spokesperson said it was “fully committed” to investing in northern rail upgrades and “getting spades in the ground”.
“We reaffirmed our commitment to the Northern Growth Corridor in the Budget, and we continue to engage with mayors to deliver NPR,” they said.
“This is a major investment, and we are committed to getting it right – taking time to plan carefully, learning from past mistakes to truly deliver for the North.”
