LONDON (Reuters) -The new Labour government will not revive a plan to build a high speed railway line from the central English city of Birmingham to northern England, a source said, denying an earlier media report.
LBC Radio said earlier on Thursday the government was set to announce that the HS2 high speed railway line would run as far as Crewe in northern England, in a reversal of the previous administration’s decision to cancel the project’s second phase.
But that was not on the cards, a government source said.
“We have always said we won’t be taking plans for HS2 phase 2 back off the shelf,” the source said, adding that the government was, however, committed to improving rail connectivity in northern England.
“Transport is an essential part of the government’s mission to rebuild Britain and grow our economy,” the source said.
The high speed project, originally announced in 2012, was designed to connect London to northern England, adding capacity to Britain’s railway network and helping the country’s infrastructure catch up with other European countries which have extensive faster modern tracks.
But HS2’s costs spiralled to over 100 billion pounds ($130 billion) forcing previous prime minister Rishi Sunak to cancel the northern leg between Birmingham and Manchester in 2023.
The LBC report had said the extension to Crewe, about 40 miles south of Manchester, would not be overseen by state-owned HS2 Ltd and the project would be handed to a private sector consortium instead.
($1 = 0.7705 pounds)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sarah Young, Editing by Paul Sandle)
