“A straight fight between Crewe and Derby” – 13 months ago, that was how I saw the contest to become home to Great British Railways. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, announced that the body charged with reviving the fortunes of a failing railway will be moving to Derby. In total, 42 locations bid for the role as GBR HQ. But in the end, the East Midlands city triumphed over its rival on the West Coast main line.
The people of Crewe have every right to feel cheated. On the two key government criteria for the home of GBR – “alignment to levelling up objectives” and “connected and easy to get to” – the Cheshire town looks well ahead of Derby.
