Politicians and business leaders have slated the Government for back-tracking on plans for HS2 in the east.
They said Boris Johnson’s Government had badly mismanaged the plans for a high-speed track from Birmingham to Leeds, saying it would impact on billions in planned investments.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced that the eastern stretch of the high speed track was being replaced by a shortened section from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway station on the Leicestershire/Notts border. There will also be shorter stretches of high speed track between Crewe and Manchester and between Warrington and Manchester.
A proposed HS2 hub at Toton, in Notts is being replaced with an upgraded station at the little-used Parkway station, a couple of miles from East Midlands Airport.
At the same time the go-ahead has been given to electrify the remainder of the Midlands Main Line as far north as Sheffield.
East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles called the HS2 changes a “bitter blow” for an area that had spent years planning for its arrival, and said the country’s leaders had reneged on commitments that had been repeatedly made.
He said the region would miss out on most of the economic benefits that had underpinned HS2, particularly in places such as Chesterfield and Staveley.
He said: “Investment begets investment and the fact that the western leg has been given the green light places the East Midlands at a massive disadvantage.
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“It risks further widening the east-west gap that is emerging alongside the more widely commented upon north-south divide.
“Of course, the proposed improvements within the Integrated Rail Plan, along with the long-needed electrification of the Midland Main Line, are positive developments.
“But these were always a part of our wider vision for HS2 in the East Midlands and electrification was promised many years ago – and has itself been the subject of multiple Government flip-flops over the past decade.
“Because make no mistake, this is a job half done.
“This has always been so much more than just a transport investment for the communities of the East Midlands and no matter how this is now spun, our joint vision that encompassed economic, environmental and societal benefits has been massively descoped.
“At a time when the Prime Minister is shouting from the rooftops about levelling up and saying no place will be left behind, this is a slap in the face to a region that already receives the lowest level of public expenditure on transport and economic affairs in the 海角视频.
“The decision not to build the Eastern Leg as originally planned undermines not only the benefits of the entire project but also trust in Government.”
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Coun Tricia Gilby, leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, said the Government had failed to deliver on its promises for HS2 in full, damaging plans for up to a billion pounds worth of investment in Staveley alone.
She said: "Chesterfield presents a prime example of a place ripe for investment and development off the back of HS2.
"Instead, the ambitions of our children and young people are yet again set to be held back by the Government’s under-investment in the infrastructure needed to enable them to build their careers and lives.
"With the HS2 maintenance depot in Staveley now in doubt, our well-developed plans to use this to re-ignite much needed growth and regeneration for Staveley will suffer.
“The same levels of investment and development will not be achieved by just connecting HS2 to the existing Midland Main Line.”
Lilian Greenwood, Labour MP for Nottingham South, the Integrated Rail Plan was a huge betrayal of the region.
She said: “We’ll lose out on massively improved connections to Leeds, the North East and Scotland.
“By scrapping the full Eastern Leg, we won’t get the extra capacity needed to create more local rail services and get more freight on rail – and lorries off our roads.
“It will leave our region in the slow lane when it comes to jobs, skills and opportunities. We needed better than yet more broken promises from Boris Johnson and the Tories.”
Erewash MP Maggie Throup supported the new high-speed connection at East Midlands Parkway, along with improvements to existing rail links in towns such as Long Eaton through Main Line electrification.
But she said: “One particular area of concern is the absence in the review of any mention of ongoing compensation for those whose lives, homes and businesses have already been directly impacted by the original line of route for HS2.
"During my time in office, I have personally represented many of the residents and businesses in Long Eaton, Sandiacre and Stanton Gate who have had to live with the uncertainty of this project for nearly a decade.
"I am launching a campaign for a new Government scheme to properly compensate those whose lives have already been blighted by HS2 Phase 2b and have already written to request an urgent meeting with both the Chancellor and the Transport Secretary to discuss the proposals in detail."
Transport for the North's interim chair Coun Louise Gittins, said it was “woefully inadequate”.
She said: “After decades of underfunding, the rail network in the North is not fit for purpose. It is largely twin-track Victorian infrastructure trying to cope with the demands of a 21st century economy.”
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of transport and travel union the TSSA said: “This is not levelling up, it’s levelling down.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson had “ripped up” promises he made that HS2 would go all the way to Leeds and that there would be a new Northern Powerhouse Rail line from Manchester to Leeds.
He said: “This was the first test of ‘levelling up’ and the Government has completely failed and let down everybody in the North. You can’t believe a word the Prime Minister says.”
In his foreword to the Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands which lays out the proposals, Boris Johnson called it “the biggest ever government investment in our rail network, in redressing decades of underspending in the Midlands and North, and in levelling up our country”.
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The PM said: “It builds three new high speed lines, totalling around 110 miles of route and transforming connections to, from and between the East and West Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire, the North East, Scotland and North Wales.
“One of these will be Northern Powerhouse Rail, keeping my promise to build it between Leeds and Manchester.
“But we will go further, extending NPR to Liverpool, York, the Tees Valley and Newcastle.
“It fully electrifies, modernises and upgrades two existing diesel main lines, the Midland Main Line from London to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield and the Transpennine Route, from Liverpool to Manchester, Leeds and York.
“This completes the electrification of around 180 route miles and more than 75 per cent of Britain’s main trunk routes.
“It upgrades yet a third main line, the East Coast Main Line from London to Yorkshire, the North East and Edinburgh, with track improvements, higher speeds, and digital signalling to slash journey times.”
Richard Blackmore, CBI Midlands Director, said: "The Integrated Rail Plan is a significant investment that will go some way towards modernising our ageing rail networks and can be delivered at pace.
“But businesses across the Midlands and Northern England will be justifiably disappointed to see the goalposts have moved at the eleventh hour, and concerned that some of the areas most sorely in need of development will lose out as a result of the scaled back plans."