Leaders have slammed a plan for HS2 at Manchester Airport which they say means passengers will alight from a high-tech train...only to board a shuttle bus to take them to the terminals. Because it's claimed there are no plans to connect Metrolink to the high speed line from day one, passengers will be left hanging, with their luggage, about a mile from the hub.
According to the government's proposal, engineers will leave behind a 'large concrete pillar' above the airport station so that a Metrolink station can be built 'at a later date'. The Manchester Evening News has been told by insiders that rail engineers are, among themselves, referring to this pole as 'the floater'.
This latest drawback of the government's 'cut-price' plan for the line connecting London, the Midlands and Manchester, is among many elements to have sparked a backlash from leaders, experts and passengers in the north of England. And, following the second reading of the HS2 Crewe-Manchester bill in parliament last month, that backlash is growing in strength.
The Manchester Evening News has told of leaders' fears that a surface turnback station at Piccadilly will blight 500,000m sq of prime develop land, wipe out the potential for 14,000 jobs and deprive the region of £330m a year up to 2050. But there are a raft of other perturbing elements to the Government's proposal, which transport secretary Grant Shapps insists shaves £5bn off the cost of the underground station preferred by leaders here.
Among them is not only the design of Manchester Airport station - but the fact that the government won't be paying for all it.
Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council and a board member of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), said: "Modern high speed trains will be serving the new HS2 Manchester Airport station. But when it opens people will have to lug their cases onto shuttle buses to get between the station and the airport. It's hardly the slick and seamless experience which passengers have every right to expect and we say it is not acceptable.
"That's why we want the powers and the backing to ensure that Metrolink can be connected to the new airport HS2 station, and onward to Wythenshawe and the city, from day one, as part of a genuinely integrated transport system, rather than added much later as a bolt-on.
"Leaving behind some infrastructure to accommodate Metrolink at some indeterminate point in the future simply doesn't cut it."
The reason for positioning a train station near Manchester Airport is to connect residents who have historically not been well served in that part of the region. Stockport, in particular, is expected to benefit from the link. However, it had been hoped that Manchester Airport would be directly connected from day one.
Gareth Dennis, rail engineer, said the proposal did not 'fit into the bigger picture', adding: "It's not so much that this stuff needs to be included in the HS2 funding envelope, it's that the long-term plan for cities getting stations is not happening, there's no strategic vision."
Describing this as one of the 'fundamental problems with transport in Britain', he added: "The reason I've been a strong advocate of HS2 is that it's the only glimpse of a forward-thinking plan that Britain had ever got anywhere near.. But that's being undermined now by the lack of a connective strategy."
He said his hope had been that transport policy more widely would catch up with HS2, but that people were now struggling to see how the project fits into the 'bigger picture'. Describing this as 'incredibly frustrating', he added: "There are two fundamental things that we need for transport to work - substantial devolution and a long-term plan that allows regions to have a view of their own long-term strategy."
The Manchester Evening News asked Manchester Airport for comment.
What the Department for Transport say:
“Right from the outset it was agreed between the Department, HS2 Ltd and Manchester stakeholders that this report would consider options on a ‘like for like’ basis looking within agreed set parameters to ensure they were fairly compared.
“The Department also went beyond this, comparing three different underground options as opposed to one to make sure that, within this agreed scenario, all avenues were thoroughly tested. In spite of this, our analysis still found that an underground station would cause major disruption during construction, take passengers longer to reach platforms, cancel out the benefits of faster journeys and significantly delay the introduction of full HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail service all at an additional cost of up to £5 billion.
“Beyond this report, we are also making provision for a future Metrolink route to the airport station and expect Transport for Greater Manchester to bring forward proposals to develop such a link, consistent with long-standing plans for an extension to the current airport rail station.
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