Why an HS2 Stoke route is the best value for UK Plc

Stoke-on-Trent is determined in its campaign to get HS2 to come to the city. John Betty, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s director of place, explains why it should be a given.

Stoke-on-Trent has put forward a compelling and convincing case for HS2 in the Stoke route which would deliver exactly the outcome a broad political consensus says HS2 should do for UK plc.

But despite all the evidence, HS2 seem determined to shunt the Stoke route into the sidings. 

"City centre stations deliver much greater impact in generating jobs and growth. And when Stoke-on-Trent is that city - only 55 minutes from London, 20 from Birmingham and less than 30 from Manchester - the economic transformation will be on a nationally significant scale."

Politicians and analysts all agree HS2 should be about connecting up the nation’s cities, the engines of growth. The Stoke-on-Trent city region is the only major conurbation between Birmingham and Manchester, with a population of over 470,000. If HS2 is about strategic economics and rebalancing the economy towards the north, Stoke-on-Trent is perfectly placed. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK with the shovel-ready development land to absorb a city the size of Milton Keynes. 

The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and the Chambers of Commerce are 100% behind the scheme’s transformational potential. It delivers everything that the alternative Crewe route delivers and more.

Volterra, the world respected economic specialist which advises both HS2 and Government, says an HS2 station in Stoke-on-Trent would result in a step change in employment and productivity in the city, of a much greater magnitude than that achieved by the alternative. Leading economist Bridget Rosewell has said the HS2 analysis fails to capture the growth impacts of transport investment on the wider economy.  “HS2 has admitted that this is a limitation in their decision making. Perhaps this is why they have failed to select the best location in terms of impact on the economy,” she said.

The powerful House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and members of the Lords Economic Affairs Committee have expressed concern that HS2 may not deliver maximum value and could be missing the point. Experience of high speed rail developments elsewhere in the world has demonstrated that city centre stations deliver much greater impact in generating jobs and growth. And when Stoke-on-Trent is that city - only 55 minutes from London, 20 from Birmingham and less than 30 from Manchester - the economic transformation will be on a nationally significant scale. 

HS2 would not just be great for Stoke-on-Trent; it would be exceptional value for the UK taxpayer.

The Stoke route would be at least £2bn cheaper and a lot greener than the alternative. It uses the existing brownfield railway corridor through the city, running dedicated HS2 track alongside the current railway. It uses tried and tested urban high speed rail technology. It needs less expensive tunnelling and cuttings. It is a shorter route and it avoids the complexity, disruption and cost of remodelling one of the most complex rail junctions in Europe.

The Stoke route is faster, delivering more connections to more people earlier, with HS2 trains direct to Macclesfield and Stockport, Manchester and all other HS2 destinations by 2026, direct HS2 services to West Yorkshire (HS3 ready) and journey times to all destinations the same or better as the alternative. And it delivers the full HS2 Ltd route to Manchester by 2033.

What’s more it would be massively better for public health, according to Professor John Newton of Public Health England.

HS2 Ltd seem unwilling to engage with the “inconvenient truth” of a faster, cheaper and macro-economically better alternative, even when it meets the policy objectives better than its own scheme. If left unchallenged HS2’s flawed process will lead to the wrong railway being built, at billions of pounds greater cost to the taxpayer, and with billions less macro-economic value.

The Government says it hasn’t made its mind up yet, but if Stoke-on-Trent is overlooked there will be some serious questions to be answered. For full details go to www.stoke.gov.uk/hs2