Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to announce the scrapping of the HS2 high-speed rail line from the West Midlands to Manchester. The BBC News Service is reporting that in his Conservative Party conference speech later, the PM is expected to set out a range of alternative projects in the north of England and Wales.
He is likely to argue these projects will be better value for money and can be delivered more quickly.
It comes after weeks of speculation about the future of the line.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps effectively confirmed a new high-speed rail line would not be built to Manchester but said HS2 trains would still run to the city and to Leeds, albeit on existing tracks.
The London to Birmingham leg of HS2 is already being built.
Mr Shapps, who was transport secretary under Boris Johnson, said there would “still be a much faster journey time” to Manchester. However, he said that changes to travel patterns following the Covid pandemic meant the government had to consider whether whether the “billions of pounds” for HS2 could be better spent on other projects.
He added that full details of alternative transport schemes would be set out in the prime minister’s conference speech in Manchester later.
The reports have already prompted anger among local leaders and businesses.
The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, accused the government of “disrespecting people across the whole of the North. It just proves there are so many people in politics – many in the Tory party – that think they can treat the north of England differently to the way they treat other parts of the country,” he told BBC Breakfast.
The Conservative West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who on Monday called an impromptu press conference to warn Mr Sunak that getting rid of HS2 would amount to “cancelling the future”, is said to be distraught by the news of the prime minister’s decision.
Former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron have also issued warnings against scaling the high-speed line back.
However, some Tory MPs oppose HS2, arguing it is a waste of money and there are better ways to improve transport links.
The football club Manchester United was among 30 businesses who wrote to the prime minister urging him to commit to the line and avoid “economic self-sabotage”.
It was hoped HS2 would cut journey times, create more space on the rail network and boost jobs outside London. But there had been concerns about the mounting costs of the infrastructure project, with the latest estimates for the project amounting to about £71bn. Even that figure was in 2019 prices so it does not account for the spike in costs for materials and wages in recent months.