Cheshire East progresses Crewe HS2 hub

A planning application for a major overhaul of Crewe railway station will be submitted next summer as the town prepares for the arrival of HS2.

The plans centre around the railway station, including improved access, a southern link road bridge between Gresty Road and Weston Road to take traffic away from the station’s frontage, and better public transport and pedestrian routes.

The Department for Transport has already committed £9.5m of funding via Network Rail to support development at the station; this will allow it to serve between five and seven HS2 trains per hour.

If the proposals remain within the DfT’s budget, this is expected to be approved next summer. A full business case will still need to be prepared by Cheshire East and approved by the Government for the scheme to go ahead.

A public consultation on the plans was held earlier this year. If funding is secured, the project will be delivered by 2027. Cheshire East’s cabinet is due to sign off continued work on the proposals at a meeting next week; it is expected final approval by full council will be made in February 2020.

This could potentially also include Compulsory Purchase Orders to assemble the land necessary to deliver the station’s overhaul.

February’s public consultation also included potential plans for three development areas around the station: a Commercial Hub and Station Central, including a new business district; the North West Link, bringing commercial and residential development in the stretch between the station and town centre; and Gresty Road Gateway, examining access from the western side.

There will also be the potential for multi-storey car parking around the edge of the station.

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Shame the potential for mutli-storey car parks wasn’t highlighted earlier. If it had been perhaps our city’s spare “mayor” might have been more interested in getting Liverpool a proper deal, before business felt the need to invent the 20MilesMore campaign themselves.

Another mere town, set to build (and fill) more commercial space in the next five years than we’ll have built in 20.

By Mike

Could someone enlighten me on the progress of the town centre, I moved to Crewe nearly 3 years ago and had understood the town centre would have started the regeneration program but I haven’t seen any progress at all.

By Kamara

kamara- There looks to be movement on Crewe Market Hall….

By Anonymous

“five to seven trains per hour” – The most recent estimate of trains departing Euston on HS2 is said to be reduced from 18 tph to 14 tph and at least 4 will be Birmingham only (to justify construction of HS2) which leaves 10 to be divided by East & West Coast Routes. Assuming that they are divided equally that would be 5 trains via Crewe plus any starting from Birmingham for the North so it would be safe to assume that at least 3-4 trains would originate at Curzon Street for the North to add to the 4 arrival & 4 Departures to/from the South to justify building Curzon Street itself, so making a total of 8 or 9 trains through Crewe rather than 5/7.
Anything less brings into question the feasibility of HS2!

By JGW905

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