Call for Crewe to be HS2 hub

BBC Online reports today of calls by HS2's chairman to make Crewe the hub for the new high speed rail network.

Building work on the northern section of the £50bn high-speed HS2 rail project should also be accelerated, HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins has said.

In his new report for the government, called HS2 Plus, he says the second phase of the project, intended to take the line to northern England by 2033, should instead be completed by 2027.

He adds it should run to a new hub at Crewe, in a 43-mile extension. Sir David said the Crewe hub was "the right strategic answer".

"The section north of Birmingham to Crewe is relatively straightforward to build, and relatively lower-cost than other parts of the northern network," he told the BBC.

But at the same time, he also called for "a more comprehensive development" of Euston station, which is HS2's London hub.

"Let's do Euston properly. Let's think about it now. It's not going to be easy, I have to say, to redevelop that station. It is a mess," he told the BBC.

Sir David questioned plans to link HS2 to the HS1 Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link at St Pancras. He said: "The current proposed HS1-HS2 link is, I believe, sub-optimal and should be reconsidered."

The first phase of HS2 is scheduled to link Birmingham and London by 2026. Under the existing plans for phase two, tracks to cities including Leeds and Manchester would be built by 2032 or 2033.

The projected cost of the project is about £43bn – including a contingency of more than £14bn – but this estimate does not include the trains, which will cost about £7bn.

Sir David said HS2 was "vital for the future of the country" and said it could be "a catalyst for fundamental change". If his plans to speed up phase two were adopted, he said, "it would deliver the benefits of HS2 – in terms of better services to the north – much sooner".

He said the speed that HS2 was passing through the legislative process was "a risk", and urged legislators not to delay the project unduly. "Infrastructure is critical to this nation. We can't have a log-jam of approvals process," he said.

Sir David was responsible for ensuring London's Olympic Park was built on time and on budget as chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority. He has been HS2 chairman since January.

His appointment was viewed as a sign the government was sticking to its plans for the controversial project despite opposition, including from some of its own MPs.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said in an interview with the Observer on Sunday that there was a "compelling case" to speed up the extension of the HS2 rail link northwards. He said it would "ensure the economic benefits can be shared sooner by everyone around the country".

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