THE High Speed Two station in Leeds will create a single-site, supersized station in the city centre after a Government report settled on the creation of a hub station.
Sir David Higgins has been working on how to integrate HS2 and improve the existing railway infrastructure at the city’s railway station since March.
Initially the HS2 station had been pencilled in for a site on the South Bank, near to Asda House, but this was opposed by many, most vociferously Leeds Chamber of Commerce which was clear on the benefits of having existing lines, HS2 and then HS3 – now known as TransNorth – being brought together at the same city-centre location.
Sir David’s report has also selected Crewe as the site of the hub in the North West, ahead of rrepresentations from Stoke-on-Trent, and the Government now believes the Birmingham-Crewe section of HS2 can be delivered by 2027, six years ahead of current plans.
It will be next autumn before the routes of the second part of the HS2 network, which will take the lines to Manchester and Leeds, are confirmed.
In a separate announcement, the former CBI director general John Cridland – who was in Leeds last month for one of his last official CBI engagements – will become chairman of Transport for the North, the umbrella body which is driving forward transport infrastructure plans for the North of England.
