Government pledges £9.7 billion to improve transport in Midlands
It's after the official scrapping of the Northern leg of HS2
Last updated 5th Oct 2023
The Department for Transport has released details of funding for improvements to transport infrastructure in the Midlands.
It's after the confirmation yesterday that the Northern leg of HS2 won't go ahead.
• Government to redirect vast HS2 savings into unprecedented transport investment across the country, benefiting more people, in more places, more quickly.
• The Midlands will receive £9.7 billion alone – with £1.75 billion to deliver the Midlands Rail Hub in full, connecting more than 50 stations and seven million people.
• The West Midlands Mayoral budget will get over a £1 billion boost, funding metro extensions and new stations.
The West Midlands will benefit from more frequent trains, more capacity and faster journeys, in a major funding boost to create stronger public transport networks.
A total of £36 billion in savings from HS2 will be reinvested in hundreds of transport projects across the country, delivering more buses, reopening railway stations, and ensuring major funding for new and improved roads.
The Network North plan will still see HS2 delivered.
But every penny that would have been spent extending the route will instead be redirected into roads, rail, and buses to drive economic growth and provide jobs.
Network North will build better connectivity across the North and the Midlands, with faster journey times, increased capacity, and more frequent, reliable services.
The government says it will deliver Phase One of HS2 between Curzon St and Euston. This will cut the journey times from Birmingham to central London from around 80 minutes currently to 49 minutes. This will add extra capacity to the West Coast Main Line, potentially supporting freight growth or additional passenger services. This could remove bottlenecks into and out of London, benefitting places like Northampton, Milton Keynes, and Watford.
The Midlands Rail Hub will also be delivered in full, with £1.75 billion of increased investment to speed up journey times, increase capacity and boost frequency of services across the region.
It will benefit more than 50 stations which between them reach more than seven million people, including those living in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Hereford, Malvern, Worcester, Tamworth, Burton, Derby, Nottingham, Nuneaton, and Leicester
Services on most routes will increase by between 50 and 100 per cent. Birmingham’s Cross-City line will be given a turn-up-and-go service, with a train every 10 minutes.
The number of trains between Birmingham and Leicester will be doubled from two to four per hour, while additional trains are planned between Birmingham and Bristol . Bromsgrove should also see an additional three trains per hour.
Further benefits for the West Midlands will include:
• More than £1 billion more for the West Midlands Mayoral budget to fund the second phase of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill metro extension, contribute to the costs of a mass transit system from East Birmingham to Solihull and fund the building of Aldridge Station.
• Communities reconnected by reopening closed Beeching lines, including the Stoke to Leek line and the Oswestry to Gobowen line, with a new stop at Park Hall. A new station will be built at Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, on the existing Crewe to Derby line,
• £100 million will be shared across the North and Midlands to support the development and roll-out of London-style contactless and smart ticketing, supporting seamless travel by enabling contactless or smartcard payment.
• A brand new £2.2 billion fund to transform local transport in every part of the Midlands outside the mayoral combined authority areas and the new East Midlands combined authority - rural counties such as Shropshire, smaller cities like Leicester and towns such as Evesham. This could pay for smaller, more demand-driven buses in rural areas and funding into greener bus fleets, as well as funding the refurbishment of Kidsgrove and Longport stations, near Stoke-on-Trent.
• A further £250 million will fully fund ten smaller road schemes in the Midlands including the Shrewsbury North Western Relief Road and the A4123 Birchley Island, near Oldbury. A Midlands Road Fund worth nearly £650 million will be launched for new road schemes.
• £230 million will be invested in increasing the frequency of bus services in the Midlands, which could be spent on new bus stops around Telford and park and ride upgrades elsewhere in Shropshire and new bus lanes in Herefordshire.
• £2.2 billion for the Midlands to combat the potholes causing misery for drivers.
• The popular £2 bus fare will also be extended until the end of December 2024 instead of rising to £2.50 as planned.