The huge transport bottleneck that will be created north of Birmingham will add to the pressure on the overloaded M6, and risks making North-South travel worse than it is today. To create a reliable and resilient network, Britain’s national transport infrastructure must be transformed. We need a comprehensive and affordable plan to address both North-South travel from Birmingham to the North of England, and East-West travel across the Pennines, to tackle the key bottlenecks and deliver economic growth and productivity for the Midlands and the North.
Our existing and under construction high-speed rail network, comprising HS1 and a truncated HS2 from London-Birmingham, gives us the platform to build a transformational national network which will drive economy growth in the century ahead. However, these lines fail to reach key cities and regions that need economic growth, and more is needed to ensure that Wales, Scotland, and the north of England are not left behind.
RIA will continue to push for greater clarity on HS2, the Northern Powerhouse programme and wider rail infrastructure for the future.