Crewe is to be the site for a northern hub station for HS2, a report has finally decided.
HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins has favoured South Cheshire for the station and HS2 link north of Birmingham to the North West over Stoke-on-Trent.
And Cheshire East Council Leader Cllr Michael Jones said the decision is a “game changer” for Crewe, Nantwich and wider region, including Stoke.
In a statement issued tonight (Sunday October 26), Cheshire East Council said HS2 Crewe would create 64,000 jobs, £3.5 billion growth, new businesses, skills, and new homes.
The plan includes bringing HS2 to Crewe five years earlier than originally forecast.
Council leader Michael Jones said “We hope to work with Stoke and Staffs. They have to be involved. It will bring unimaginable benefits.
“Crewe will become a town transformed. Incomes doubled, skills, jobs, new homes, learning opportunities. Central to new northern powerhouse.”
It’s believed Sir Higgins’ report, due to be released tomorrow (October 27), states that Stoke “offers more limited connectivity at a higher cost” and has “significant geological and engineering difficulties.”
Dr Adrian Heald, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Crewe & Nantwich, said: “In economic terms this is the best news for Crewe and the surrounding area in decades.
“HS2 will bring businesses, investment and jobs to Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and North Wales.
“It is important the hub station also brings benefit to the town of Crewe, which means locating it as close as possible to the town with a fixed link – in other words a rapid transit system not just a road link.
“Furthermore the existing railway station must be fully integrated into the new infrastructure.”
This is clearly economically important for Crewe and the surrounding areas, as stated by Dr Heald and Councillor Jones. But it will come at a cost, carefully not mentioned by the said politicians. As things stand, local infrastructure and the essential services, e.g. health, transport, seem unlikely to support an extra 60000 residents as they stand. A lot of work will be needed by CEC to develop roads (filling in the potholes would be a good start). Let us hope that CEC deals with this proactively and does not just sit back preening itself and doing nothing until the problems are upon us.
A new age for railways at Crewe.