Alistair Houghton on calls for Merseyside to benefit from the £32bn plans for HS2

HIGH-SPEED rail is a divisive subject, but one thing unites everyone – Liverpool must not be left standing on the platform while plans for massive investment in the railway network pass by.

The Government has been consulting on plans for a £32bn high-speed rail system, dubbed High Speed 2 (HS2), that it says “offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way we travel in Britain”.

The Y-shaped network would be built in two phases. The first part of the line will run from London to Birmingham, while lines will then be built to link the Midlands with Manchester and Leeds.

Liverpool is not set to get its own high-speed line, but trains will run from the city onto the new line.

Journey times to London would be slashed. The journey time from Liverpool to London would go from 2hr 10min to 1hr 37 min.

But HS2 is not simply about faster journey times. Supporters say the project will help create thousands of jobs in cities served by the line, repaying the massive investment many times over.

A July report by Volterra and Arup, commissioned by the Core Cities Group, suggests that a high-speed rail network, combined with electrification of other lines, could create as many as 400,000 jobs nationwide ­– including almost 39,000 jobs in Liverpool.

The Government’s HS2 website says: “A new high-speed rail network would transform the country’s economic geography.

“It would bring our key cities closer together, enable businesses to operate more productively, support employment growth and regeneration, provide a genuine alternative to domestic aviation, and create a platform for delivering long-term and sustainable economic growth and prosperity.”

The project has met with criticism – and not just from the communities through which the line will pass.

The project has been attacked for its high cost and for the time it will take to complete – 20 years to complete the line from London to Manchester and Leeds.

It has also been suggested that cities such as Liverpool that are not directly linked to the new network could miss out on investment.

Locally, HS2 has been welcomed by business leaders and politicians. But, in their detailed submissions to the Government, Merseytravel and Liverpool Chamber of Commerce – which both support the concept of high-speed rail – are at pains to point out that Liverpool needs its own high-speed link.

Merseytravel said the West Coast Main Line (WCML) is almost at capacity, meaning rail alternatives are needed.

It welcomed high-speed rail, but said connections between any new network and Liverpool need to be developed as soon as possible.

In its response to the Government’s consultation, it said: “High-speed rail is essential to support economic growth in the regions, and is most important for the cities with relatively weak economies – Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Glasgow.

“There is a risk that the Y-network as presently configured could inadvertently worsen the competitive position of the weaker cities in favour of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

“It is accepted that there is a need to provide additional network capacity to cope with existing/forecast demand, but there is also a need, particularly during these times of austerity, to ensure that investment in the other parts of the network will not be prejudiced by investment in HS2 (and the strategic HS2 network in future).

“The necessary complementary network provision must be put in place to lock-in the widest possible geographic and economic benefits anticipated to arise from the HS2 and future high-speed network development.

“Compared to Manchester and Birmingham, Liverpool has poorer services on the current WCML, which causes real concern on Merseyside. Liverpool cannot risk further deterioration of its economic competitiveness.”

Merseytravel suggested Merseyside should have:

A half-hourly Liverpool-London high-speed service;

Liverpool-Birmingham-Heathrow high-speed service “appropriate to demand”;

“In the longer term”, a Liverpool-Glasgow/Edinburgh high-speed service;

Journey times between Liverpool and London that are “competitive” to London-Manchester times.

The report said: “Liverpool-London in 1hr 38 mins is 30 mins faster than the present average, but Manchester-London will be 1hr 10 mins. The Liverpool city centre-London journey time must be competitive to Manchester city centre-London to retain existing and attract further inward investment.”

The idea that Liverpool could lose out to Manchester was stressed again later in the report. It said the difference in journey times between the two cities “will act as a significant incentive to businesses to consider locating in Manchester rather than Liverpool”.

Merseytravel also urged the Government and HS2 Ltd – the company set up by the Government to plan HS2 – to consult stakeholders in Merseyside about plans for the future of the high-speed network. It said: “There is a perception on Merseyside that the Birmingham-Manchester alignment is already a ‘done deal’, with no account taken of extensions beyond Manchester, to Liverpool or Scotland.

“HS2 should approach Manchester from the west or southwest, to take advantage of the best alignment for a future extension to Scotland and to facilitate an HSL to Liverpool.”

Liverpool Chamber, in its response to the consultation, agreed there needed to be “an early commitment to assess the feasibility of a high-speed spur to serve Greater Merseyside”.

It added: “ While we recognise that journey time improvements between London and Liverpool may be delivered as an indirect consequence of high-speed infrastructure development to the West Midlands and Manchester, past and forecast growth trends in passenger flows across the city-region are unlikely to be served adequately without a direct high-speed link to Liverpool stations.”

The Chamber suggested routes for Liverpool’s link to HS2 – such as using the “fully-functioning, under-utilised railway line from Warrington Bank Quay to Ditton Junction (Widnes) which would be relatively inexpensive to upgrade for high-speed use”.

The organisation also said that, by freeing up space on the existing WCML for freight traffic, HS2 could help the region meet its green targets.

It said: “The Chamber views this growth as critical for improving local air quality, reducing congestion on the major road networks serving the city, meeting the growing demand for freight movements from the Port of Liverpool and to assist the city-region’s transition to a Low-Carbon economy.”

The Chamber said the Government should ensure that other major rail improvement programmes – such as the full electrification of the Liverpool-Manchester line – are completed in time for the opening of HS2.

And, in its conclusion, the Chamber says that a high-speed network that includes Liverpool should be warmly welcomed. It said: “We view high-speed rail as a long- term strategic development priority that will deliver inter-generational benefits for both passengers and freight by expanding capacity across the wider rail network in the UK. It will drive and facilitate the growth and regeneration of Liverpool city region while supporting its transition to a low-carbon economy.”

The Core Cities Group report said HS2 as it stands will still be of great benefit to Liverpool’s economy.

It says: “For Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, the full Y scheme will bring London within 73-80 minutes. This will make it far easier and more efficient for people to do a day’s business in London (and vice versa).

“Meanwhile, Liverpool will be brought with 97 minutes of London through the use of classic compatible trains. This improved access to London will improve the competitive position of these cities as investment locations.”

And it added: “The full Y scheme will help create more integrated and powerful economic zones outside London: between Birmingham and Manchester and Liverpool, and between Birmingham, the East Midlands, Sheffield City Region and Leeds.

“Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield will all benefit from capacity improvements on existing lines. This will benefit passengers travelling to or from places not on the high-speed network.”

When that report was published in July, it was warmly welcomed by business leaders in the city region.

Michael Oglesby, executive chairman of Bruntwood, one of Liverpool’s biggest commercial landlords, said: “This could be the biggest boost to regional economies since the steam engine. We believe that GDP growth in the core cities could out-strip the national economy, reaching 3% per annum thanks to investments like high-speed rail.”

The Government is now digesting the region’s views, and is likely to report later this year. Merseyside’s economic development officials will be hoping that the city’s needs will not be forgotten.