THE people behind the new high speed link from London to the north have said Warrington will not lose out.
Last week the Warrington Guardian reported on a document which appeared to miss off the town on its route from London to Glasgow along the West Coast Main Line.
But this week a HS2 Ltd spokesman said: "Our latest modelling is based on the assumption that Warrington will be served by a regular direct rail link to London. This could provide even faster travel times into London for the people of Warrington – potentially reducing journey times by about 20 minutes when HS2 opens in 2026.
“Although we have published an indicative outline of possible services based on a demand model – this is not a timetable. The timetable for services running on HS2 will be developed much closer to the opening date by the train operator, based on demand at the time. We will continue refining the possible service pattern to maximise capacity on the existing network and high speed rail.”
Meanwhile Warrington South MP David Mowat has been urging his counterparts across the north to back the new high speed rail link to the south.
Some politicians in Liverpool had accused the Government of a ‘sneaky’ decision to alter the route which would ‘downgrade’ the city and Mr Mowat was disappointed to hear his Conservative colleagues describing their support for the rail line as conditional on the final route.
He said: “In recent months we have seen a number of comments from various politicians of all parties which have given the impression that unless HS2 stops in their patch it might as well not be done.
“In the south we see Tory Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire County Councils cooperating with Labour-run Camden and Coventry to oppose HS2, yet up here in the north, politicians of all parties are queuing up to accuse each other of favouring their own areas.
“The bare fact of the matter is that without this line we will all be worse off whilst London will surge even further ahead.
“Businesses are saying that HS2 is vital to their future growth plans and independent reports say that it could create 40,000 jobs.
“If we don’t grab this infrastructure money with both hands, it will end up being spent on yet another railway line in London such as Crossrail 2 which already has a well-resourced and well-heeled campaign behind it.
“It is time we all showed a little more maturity and spoke with a single coherent voice on this project or risk losing a once in a generation opportunity.”
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