Midlands Rail Hub launch – political leaders back rail plans

midlands-rail-hub-political-leaders-back-plans

Rhi Storer - Local Democracy Reporter | Thursday 8th December 2022 10:40am

Political leaders across the Midlands expressed their support for new rail infrastructure to bring faster and more frequent train services  to the region.

The Midlands Rail Hub plans, announced by Midlands Connect today, will hope to deliver quicker trains for 43 communities, towns, and cities throughout the region,

The plans, as part of a transformative £1.5 billion package of improvements, will rejuvenate east-west connections throughout the Midlands. Examples include renovating a derelict platform in Kings Norton; a new platform four at Snow Hill; more intercity trains; and an extra two trains per hour to Leicester.

Such are the plans for better connectivity in the region, Midlands Connect claims improvements to intercity Birmingham trains alone would enable them to arrive every ten minutes.

The  transport group – representing councils, local enterprise partnerships and other public bodies in the region – say train services will improve reliability by moving some train services to Moor Street, and will free up the ‘bottleneck’ caused by a surplus of services at New Street.

The rail plans – ‘Going for Growth’ was submitted by Midlands Connect to the government today. The £20 million business case was previously backed in the ‘Integrated Rail Plan’ and has key political support.

Andy Street, mayor for West Midlands, said: “This all might sound a bit technical, but this is really a practical project that will improve our train services across the Midlands.

“The simple idea is by developing Moor Street station and directly connecting it to two lines to south west and north east, it enables us to put many more services through Moor Street, which will take pressure off New Street.

“This doubles down on the HS2 investment. It’s complimentary by making services more adjacent. What we’re really saying today is we’ve done our homework, we’re sure we can deliver what we want from this allocation of money.

“We still have to make the case, but I think the stars are aligned.”

Analysis by Midlands Connect shows for every £1 spent on the Midlands Rail Hub, it will deliver over £1.50 in benefits to services and safeguard 1,600 jobs in the construction industry.

The group estimates an extra 14.6 million seats will be available on the railway every year, with the delivery of over 100 additional trains on the network every day to locations such as Birmingham, Nuneaton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, and Leicester.

Maria Machancoses, chief executive of Midlands Connect, said the region does not want to be “waiting ten years” for HS2 to open before improving local train services.

She said construction work under the banner of Midlands Rail Hub will start in 2025 and will be completed by 2030.

“The government has been with us all the way. The Department for Transport have been supportive in the development of these proposals. They are very committed – it was in the 2019 Tory manifesto and again in the transport select committee.

“Labour, as well as the Conservatives, understand that our programmes are here for the long game, and therefore they need to come together and keep investing.”

Councillor Liz Clements, cabinet member for transport at Birmingham city council, said: “This is a crucial project for our region. There are difficult times in the rail industry at the moment so it is good to have good news.

“Improved rail services means less carbon emitting in our atmosphere and I’m delighted to see these plans tackle the ‘bottleneck’ at New Street.”

Preet Gill MP said the train plans were the first signs of tangible ‘levelling up’ in the Midlands.

She said: “The government talks a lot about levelling up. It announced the investment zones, and scrapped those. But actually, if the government is really serious about levelling up the country, then its got to see the investment in the Midlands as well.”

Ms Gill said it took around two and a half hours to get to Chester for the recent by-election, and that if the government is serious about levelling up, then it will see through the Midlands Rail Hub.

“It’s about better connectivity. People shouldn’t have to leave their place of birth to go and get a job or to go to university or to go to any training opportunities,” she added.

More News Headlines