Work on track to bring HS2 to Birmingham- Transport Secretary visits station
Mark Harper says the controversial HS2 scheme is a big investment for the region
Last updated 18th Jul 2023
Transport Secretary Mark Harper hailed the "fantastic job" done by outgoing HS2 chief executive Mark Thurston as he visited Birmingham on Monday to see the new Curzon Street Station taking shape.
Mr Harper was joined t by his Australian counterpart, Catherine King, as they inspected the city centre's new 300 metre-long viaduct
Despite delays to the controversial rail project, which was initially scheduled to open in 2026 but has been pushed back to 2033 due to construction difficulties and rising costs, Mr Harper told the PA news agency he was confident it was making "great" progress.
Mr Harper said: "It's great, I was here seven months ago, you can see a huge amount of progress already. I get briefings on the project that says it is making progress but it's nice to come here and see it myself.
"Catherine has been here to listen to our experiences of this for what they are planning on doing with high speed rail in Australia and it's great to show her the project in action.
Explaining why Curzon Street was so important, Mr Harper said: "This is going to be the gateway to the city for people using HS2 and coming in and out of the city.
"If you look at the designs, it is going to be a fantastic space. The design has been done so the railway doesn't actually cut anything off.
Once built, Curzon Street Station will be "one of the most environmentally friendly stations in the world", HS2 has said.
It will eventually welcome nine high-speed services per hour into the city centre.
With seven terminal platforms, it will form part of HS2's opening phase, with the first services expected to run from west London into the station by 2033, serving around 25,000 passengers a day.
The high-speed railway is expected to cost north of over £70billion.