UK: West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and his Greater Manchester counterpart Andy Burnham have convened a private sector group to look at options to improve rail connections between the Midlands and the north of England.
The mayors said the Birmingham – Manchester corridor running through Wolverhampton and along the West Coast Main Line is one of the most congested and unreliable routes on the network.
The group is chaired by former Network Rail CEO and HS2 Ltd Chairman Sir David Higgins, and met for the first time on December 1.
The formation of the group follows on from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to work with Street to enhance connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester following the decision to scrap HS2 north of Handsacre, near Lichfield.
Work will be led by engineering firm Arup with input from ‘other leading private sector firms’, according to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
It will focus on the section between Handsacre and Manchester Airport, re-examining the cost, capacity and economic benefits of changes to the rail route, helping to identify packages of potential interventions and possible private sector funding models.
The aim is for the first stage of the work to be completed by March 2024, with the final report to be submitted to the government in the summer.
