Despite not a sod of earth as yet being dug on HS2, the chancellor George Osbourne is in Manchester this morning to announce HS3.
Responding to criticism that the high speed rail link to London will simply draw investment south, he will tell the audience that a new link will boost the economy of the North by building England’s third high-speed rail link – HS3 – between Manchester and Leeds.
The project would be based on the existing Manchester-to-Leeds rail line but journey times would be speeded up by building new tunnels and infrastructure.
Osbourne envisages a “northern hub” with 7.8 million people stretching from Merseyside through Greater Manchester to West and South Yorkshire, which would rival London’s 8.3 million population.
He will tell the audience:
“The cities of the North are individually strong, but collectively not strong enough. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. So the powerhouse of London dominates more and more. And that’s not healthy for our economy. It’s not good for our country.”
However there is no news on the timetable, neither from where the investment will come from and it appears unlikely that the scheme will link to towns and cities in the NE.
The announcement is also a nod to Conservative activists who have been urging more measures to boost the party’s prospects in the north ahead of next year’s general election.
