HS2 buys key site in Manchester
Bruntwood has sold its Square One site off Travis Street to enable HS2 to build a new high-speed station near Piccadilly Station.
HS2 purchased the 4.5-acre site, which contains offices for Network Rail, for an undisclosed amount on behalf of the Department for Transport.
The proposed Manchester HS2 station would have six surface-level platforms as well as an underground four-platform Metrolink station.
Early works to support the construction of the station will not begin until 2025 at the earliest, according to HS2. In the meantime, the company has agreed leasehold terms with the existing tenants at Square One so they can stay in situ until it needs the site.
HS2 estimates the new station would open between 2035 and 2040.
Ruth Todd, chief commercial officer at HS2, referred to the purchase of Square One as a “major milestone” for the high-speed rail project.
“HS2’s purchase of Square One is a vote of confidence for investors locally and internationally to leverage the wider regeneration potential of the surrounding area, knowing that Manchester is set to become so brilliantly connected,” she said.
Bruntwood said it would use the proceeds of the sale to invest in regional development.
The new Manchester high-speed station is part of the HS2 phase 2b hybrid bill, which was introduced in January and has been met with criticism by Manchester City Council.
The council has argued that a surface-level, turnback station would be detrimental to the city’s future compared to an underground, through station.
Adding to the city’s arguments, architectural practice Weston Williamson + Partners publicised its designs for what an underground station could look like.
And so it begins.
By Anonymous
As the Northern hub Manchester should have had an underground station to match the upgrades to the lines going east and west. This is good for transport across the north and great for investment in the city but could have been so much better.
By Anonymous
Does anyone know how much this HS2 station and metrolink hub is going to cost? Good that things are moving along at last.
Have still to hear when the Liverpool HS2 station is going to start, and it`s location.
By Anonymous
Great news. Really not a great loss when this gets demolished. Eyesore of a building
By Steve
The weston williamson plan is the best option for the future and growth a terminal station will restrict the option to have oversite development as at Euston and help pay for the future Canary Wharf of the north as the current arrangment option will have to be a through station in the future so do it right first time and do not waste time and money in the for the next generation to put right our short sighted leaders penny pinching folly
By Graham
I think its a waste of money 💰 I don’t know about HS2 station been built what homes what about hospitals things we need not stupid things thar we don’t need
By stoge
Glad you’re not running the country Stoge. Of course we need investment in houses and hospitals and we are getting them.We also need investment in transport for the future. One does not exclude the other.
By Anonymous
It’s got to go underground – what is good for London is good for Manchester.
By Anonymous
I still think HS2 will not go beyond Crewe. There is little risk for them in purchasing some property.
By Anonymous
Waste of money Manchester doesn’t need this
By Anonymous
Manchester does need this Anonymous. Anyone who’s travelled on trains between Manchester and London over the last 6 months knows how busy and expensive they are. We absolutely need the extra capacity – not to mention the need to unlock capacity on local lines in south Manchester to be able to run more local-stopping trains around Stockport/Tameside.
By open your eyes
Using France as an example ,all of the Paris main stations are terminals( as are London) and the main through route skirts around the east of the city taking in both airports and onwards to Lille and the Channel Tunnel, think the best thing here would have been a main HS2 hub West of Mcr, this could then have forked to Leeds and Liverpool, and allowed HS2 to push on to Scotland, instead we have now got into a muddle about further expense on an underground hub in central Mcr.
By Anonymous
Meanwhile Lpool is getting a modern coal bunker site for when they return to steam
By Barry
Bankrupted the country whilst the population struggled to feed and warm their homes, with a failed EV uptake.
By Andy Grey Rider
Making London the epicentre of railways in this country ,is why they are such a mess and why it dominates economically. There is nowhere of any relevance South of London apart from Midsomer commuter towns. In an intelligent country, Birmingham would have been the focal point for trains to gather. It is easy to get to everywhere from it, including North Wales and East Anglia. It is also relatively flat, unlike Manchester or Leeds, which are surrounded by hills, so tunnels would not be needed to the same extent, making it cheaper. HS2 should have been started in Birmingham and two huge Termini built on either side of it joined by an underground line, serving the North and London, connecting the two seamlessly. There is no reason why the two halves of this could not be built together, apart from it being all about London again.
By Elephant
Liverpool runs underground which to my mind goes for a better city experience.
By Liverpool romance
An underground only really works for the population if you can do it at scale ie the tube. Liverpool hardly has that nor will it ever. Neither will Manchester for that matter but it will in time have the best integrated transport system outside London… and unless they move Parliament north that’ll have to do.
By Anonymous