North faces ‘Armageddon’ without HS2 links, warns Andy Burnham

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has warned that the north of England risks facing a “catastrophe” unless the HS2 high-speed rail link from Birmingham to Manchester is completed.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged a reversal of the previous government’s decision to scrap the northern part of the project, calling for a revised and more expensive version of the original plan.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Burnham explained that ending HS2 in Birmingham would lead to a deterioration in rail services in the north, requiring slower trains and fewer seats. He claimed that running HS2 trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), which lacks the capacity to accommodate double-length carriages and high-speed curves, would result in a “worse train service than we currently have”.

The high-speed rail line was originally planned to link London and Manchester, but was scaled back in 2023 under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to save £36bn, sparking anger across the north. Burnham is now pushing for a cheaper alternative, the Midlands-North West Rail Link, which would link Lichfield to High League, near Warrington, and be backed by private investment.

Burnham said the project would solve regional transport problems at a fraction of the original cost of High Speed ​​Rail Line 2. He said Britain risked “going down a transport nightmare path” unless investment was made to modernise its rail infrastructure, especially as the mainline railway in west London and the M6 ​​motorway reach capacity.

He also expressed his support for extending High Speed ​​Rail Line 2 from Old Oak Common to London’s Euston station, noting that “people in the north of England should be able to get to the heart of our capital”.

Burnham’s comments come as the National Audit Office has raised concerns about capacity issues following the cancellation of the northern leg of High Speed ​​Rail Line 2. It warned that upgrading the main line in west London alone would cause significant disruption and would not be sufficient to meet future demand.