Second phase of HS2 revealed

Date: 29/1/2013

The government has revealed the route that the second phase of the (HS2) High Speed Two rail network will take once it has been completed between London and Birmingham.

At a cost of £33 billion, the new line will be extended in a Y shape up to Manchester and Leeds with stations at Manchester Airport, Toton in the East Midlands and Meadowhall near Sheffield along the way.

High-speed trains, capable of travelling at up to 250 miles per hour, will also stop at the existing train station in Crewe.

Chancellor George Osborne described the investment as "the engine for growth" which is needed in the north of England and the Midlands.

It was also expected that plans for a spur connecting HS2 to Heathrow Airport would be announced, but this has been held off until the Davies Review on aviation policy is completed in 2015.

The precise route of HS2 will be confirmed next year before legislation putting it in place is drawn up in 2015 and work is scheduled to begin on phase one in 2017.

Construction of phase two is expected to start in the middle of the next decade so that it can be opened between 2032 and 2033.

Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, welcomed the unveiling of plans to extend the network further north, suggesting it would be "a game-changer for the economy".

Passengers will be able to travel to the northern cities from London in around half the time it has taken previously by train.

From London Euston to Manchester, the journey time will be as little as one hour and eight minutes, while from the capital to Leeds it will have a duration of one hour and 22 minutes.

As well as improving journey times, the new rail links will also free up capacity on existing trains travelling north, allowing more people to be transported by train.

HS2 will be a large construction project and the first railway to be built north of London in 120 years.

Posted by Mary Treen

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