A four-platform, underground HS2 rail station at Piccadilly is 'the best solution for Manchester and the north', a committee of MPs was told.
The leader of Manchester city council, Bev Craig, delivered an impassioned plea to Government to work with Manchester to change the current plans.
Addressing the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill Select Committee at the Commons, she said the 'world would be different' 20 years from now and more people would travel by train.
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"I don't want people in Manchester, residents or visitors alike, to look around the city and think 'what on earth were they thinking, concrete stilts cutting off sections of the city'," she said.
"Not future proofing a significant investment. Wondering why when we had the chance we didn't build it once, and we didn't build it right." Coun Craig said Manchester was a 'realistic and pragmatic city', and urged the Government through the committee: "Work with us, lets look again."
Delegates from Manchester are giving evidence to the committee again on Tuesday and into next week. Manchester argues that the current plans for a surface HS2 station at Manchester Piccadilly aren't suitable and are short-sighted.
Collectively, witnesses giving evidence to the committee on behalf of Manchester are asking the government to look again in detail at the underground idea, which has previously been dismissed out of hand. What the committee recommends will have a crucial bearing on the plans.
The government's current plan involves bringing high speed trains to the city on 'ugly and intrusive' concrete stilts and the council argues it would swallow up half a million square metres of prime city centre land which could be used to create 14,000 jobs, much-needed housing and new green spaces. Ardwick and Beswick, said coun Craig, would be blighted by 15-metre high concrete viaducts.
Tram lines would also have to be severed, leaving Ashton with no Metrolink services for two years.
Coun Craig spoke about Manchester's regeneration, saying it is bringing in more jobs, residents and visitors to the city centre. On the plans for Manchester Piccadilly, she said HS2 was a 'once in a lifetime opportunity'.
"Piccadilly is at the heart of our city centre agenda and HS2 and future Northern Powerhouse Rail networks," she said.
"The right station at Piccadilly would enable full advantage of the new rail capacity to be taken and enhance connectivity to stimulate growth - to the benefit of the North and the UK. An underground through station at Piccadilly is the best solution for Manchester and the north."
Six surface platforms is the current plan - it would be the northern 'terminus' that will incorporate NPR services from Liverpool, the committee was told. NPR trains would 'dwell' for five minutes at Piccadilly for passengers to get on and off, then continue towards Liverpool or Leeds and York.
It would cost £6.9bn, the committee was told, with mid-2036 given as a date for possible completion.
The council, Transport for Greater Manchester and the Combined Authority, however, want a four-platform underground station 'alternative'.
Neil Cameron KC, the barrister representing the bodies, said extra costs for the underground station would be between £1.75bn and £2.64bn. He said the economic benefits of an underground station have been assessed, adding: "Our estimate is approximately £3.6bn. We say, yes it is worth it."
The KC said an underground station would mean less land lost and would benefit NPR trains going from east to west and vice versa.
He said: "Although it would be spending more it wouldn't be spending it just for Manchester. It's spending more for the north as a whole and for the country." The hearing resumes on Tuesday.
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