Helen Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-03-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential economic benefits to (a) the North-West and (b) Warrington of further upgrading the West-East line as proposed in the HS2 Plus Report.

Mr Robert Goodwill

No specific assessment has yet been made. In response to the HS2 Plus report, we have commissioned HS2 Ltd and Network Rail to undertake work to allow proposals to accelerate construction of the Crewe section of HS2 Phase Two and to build a new integrated hub station at Crewe to be looked at in detail as part of the consideration of the public consultation responses to Phase Two. We have also commissioned HS2 Ltd and Network Rail to make recommendations on enhancing connectivity in the midlands and the north before our response to the Phase Two consultation.