After months of speculation as to whether the government had changed course over the roll out of high speed rail, they have finally announced details of the next phase of the £32bn HS2 high-speed rail network.
The preferred route of HS2 phase two travels north from Birmingham in two branches, with new stations at Toton near Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Manchester Airport. The government claim that the high speed network would halve journey times for travellers between London and Manchester with speeds of up to 250mph, and this will open up the north for further investment and job opportunities.
However, critics of the scheme argue that the economic benefits to the north have been overestimated and the network will be a blight on the “picturesque” countryside. They also raise the similarities of the high speed network rolled out in Spain between Madrid and Seville, with an aim to expand Seville – but where in reality Madrid grew much faster. Groups such as StopHS2 claim that the network will simply increase the speed of the drain of people and jobs from the north to London.
The construction of the Y-shaped extension could begin construction in the middle of the next decade, with the line open by 2032-33.
