business news

UK Govt axes plans for a £3B link between HS2 & west coast main line

Date: June 09, 2022 Omkar Patwardhan Omkar Patwardhan
UK Govt axes plans for a £3B link between HS2 & west coast main line 
The UK government has reportedly axed plans to construct a new £3 billion ($3.7 billion) rail link connecting HS2 and the West Coast Main Line.



Despite its inclusion in the government’s Integrated Rail Plan for enhancing the Midlands and North, the 13-mile (21-kilometer) Golborne Link in Cheshire, as well as Greater Manchester, will not be completed.



The Railway Industry Association, High Speed Rail Group, and Rail Freight Group are concerned that this may result in a bottleneck.



Meanwhile, the government stated that it will look into other options.



The Golborne Link would have split off from the high-speed route between Crewe and Manchester, cutting through Cheshire and Trafford before connecting with the West Coast Mainline that lies south of Wigan.



Andrew Stephenson, Minister for HS2, stated that the government would now find out how HS2 trains can best go to and from Scotland.



The timing of the revelation has also faced severe criticism, having arrived just 30 minutes before the result of the Conservative Party's confidence vote in Boris Johnson's leadership.



Through a joint statement, the three railway industry organizations stated that they is tremendously disheartening to find that, on a day when most of the political attention was directed elsewhere, the government announced that the Golborne Link would be withdrawn from the HS2 project.



The news comes just six months after the British government scrapped plans to expand the HS2 railway to Leeds.



The Golborne Link was scheduled to open in the early 2040s, with work beginning in the early 2030s.



MPs, councils, and local residents have all been vocal in their criticism towards the Golborne Link.



Warrington Council Leader, Russ Bowden, stated that Golborne Link has been a topic of concern since the idea was originally initially proposed, and therefore, it is particularly a delight to know that it is no longer part of High Speed Rail plans.

About the author

View All Posts

Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for numerous websites, including News Origins, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology.