High-Speed Rail - the gateway to the North West?

Published by Fiona Mannion for TCPA in Central Government and also in Local Government

In this month’s Town and Country Planning Journal, Sir Peter Hall and Ian Wray argue that the future High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) must combine with the North West’s existing rail network in a single system, so as to maximise accessibility and thus development potential for the region. They warn that without an investment-led recovery in infrastructure that underpins the North’s cities, there will be little alternative to large-scale Southern growth, often on greenfield sites – and the cost of infrastructure to service that growth, in schools, transport, strategic water supply and all the rest, could be colossal.

Sir Peter Hall said:

“HS2 needs to build on what is perhaps the North West’s most significant asset – its sheer scale, size, and critical mass – by promoting agglomeration economies. Timescales need to be brought forward. And silo planning – where HS2 plans high-speed rail, Network Rail plans other routes, and there is little co-ordination with land use planning, regeneration, and park-and-ride provision – must at all costs be avoided.”

The article argues that the first requirement is to establish truly high-speed rail services to Manchester, Manchester Airport and Liverpool, as well as increased capacity for conventional rail traffic in the Manchester rail hub. However, the plan also needs to look beyond that. It needs to ensure that in the long term Manchester and its airport are centrally located on the future national high-speed rail network rather than off on a limb. It needs to pull wider parts of the North West into the benefits of high-speed access, so that growth is not sucked into one or two already attractive locations.

They propose to achieve this by extending the orbit of HS2 to every major urban centre in the region either directly, or through easy connections to the regional network at Manchester Victoria.

Sir Peter Hall added:

“The North West’s economy is vulnerable. It needs a clear strategic commitment from the Government – a co-ordinated major investment programme that will lift confidence and trigger a process of investment and restructuring, led by the private sector. A strategy built around key assets and areas of need, centred on high-speed and conventional rail investment, can provide this.”