High-speed rail plans cause fears in York (From York Press)

High-speed rail plans cause fears in York

7:40am Friday 12th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

Updated: THE fight to ensure York’s survival as one of the UK’s railway heartlands is being stepped up today after plans for a new high-speed travel link left the city facing uncertainty over its transport future.

Proposals for a rail network catering for 250mph trains have been revealed in a Government blueprint, with the first stage of the line set to run from London to Birmingham before potentially being extended to Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester.

But although the eventual aim is to run the route to Scotland, the full picture of how this would be done remains unclear. It has raised fears about the future of York’s rail status, and the possibility of businesses and commuters shunning the region and the East Coast Main Line in favour of the new link.

York’s council leader, Andrew Waller, said the lack of clarity about the city’s potential role in the network was “a severe worry”, and he would make the issue “the number-one priority” when he met with his counterparts from other Yorkshire authorities and regional development agency Yorkshire Forward today.

He said: “Getting the link to part of Yorkshire is better than nothing, but York and the north-east of England needs to get a share of the investment.

“It is an ambition of the nation to have a high-speed rail link, and it is also showing a lack of ambition to terminate this route at Leeds. There needs to be a clear connection from Leeds to the existing East Coast Main Line through York and then on to Newcastle, so we get the benefits of the new link and new rolling stock.

“This absolutely has to be done and I would be very concerned if it did not happen, but there are some serious questions to be asked. A link between the high-speed and East Coast lines is a must, so the lack of clarity is a severe worry – York has had a rail connection with London since 1860 and that has to be maintained.”

The Government has recommended a new line initially between London and Birmingham, which would then branch out in a Y-shape to Leeds and Manchester, at an estimated overall cost of £30 billion. Work is unlikely to start until 2017 at the earliest.

York MP Hugh Bayley said: “The Government is absolutely right to plan for a future transferring more traffic from air and road to rail.

“It’s important for us in York to look at how our passengers gain access to the high-speed network and ensure investment in the East Coast Mainline is maintained, because the country will need all the rail capacity it can get.”