High speed rail link might reach Lancashire
A proposed new high-speed rail line could be extended through Lancashire, a cabinet minister has said.
Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has revealed that the company charged with drawing up proposals for a new 200mph line between London and the West Midlands WILL also look at options for extending it to the North West.
Speaking to the Evening Post, Mr Hoon said that one option could be for the line to split at Rugby, sending one branch to the North West and another to Yorkshire.
His comments have been welcomed by Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle who said it would be "ridiculous" if high-speed rail did not come to Lancashire.
North West MPs were left disappointed last month when Mr Hoon unveiled high-speed plans which involved the line stopping in the West Midlands.
But speaking in Westminster Mr Hoon said the north could still benefit from the scheme.
He said the proposals for a line to Rugby needed to be drawn up immediately, because the current line is set to reach capacity by the mid-2020s.
But crucially, a new high-speed rail company set up by the government will also consider how that line should be extended.
He said: "Do you go on from Rugby, parallel with the West Coast Mainline, past Birmingham onto Manchester? Do you go beyond that – particularly the Lake District, possibly parallelling the M6?
"Or do you go across? The great advantage with Rugby is that it is on the old great central (line). That goes across the Midlands up through Yorkshire. You have got an opportunity from a place like Rugby.
"Do you do both? These are the kinds of practical questions that the company will be answering. I haven't got the billions of pounds immediately available to build this line."
The setting up of the high speed rail company itself, he said, was "the first necessary, practical step to get this project going".
Mr Hoyle said: "It would be absolutely ridiculous if it did not go to the North West. It would lead to a divide at the South Midlands and we would end up a poorer relation. That is something I will not accept.
"I will be lobbying very hard for high-speed links as well as direct links to Europe."
The Tories pledged last year to launch a competition to build a high-speed link alongside the existing West Coast Mainline if they came to power.
Train journeys from the North West to London would be slashed by up to 45 minutes under the proposal.
>> Tory rail link to cut journey times
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Thursday 29 July 2010
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