HS2 will go to Manchester but ‘will switch tracks at Birmingham’, says PM

High-speed rails will reach Manchester, but will not involve the installation of new tracks, it has been reported.

According to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge, the Prime Minister has said HS2 will go from London to Manchester, but from Birmingham it will run on existing West Coast Mainline tracks.

This means that the new high-speed track will effectively end at Birmingham.

Trains will also now start and terminate at Euston rather than at Old Oak Common in west London, the outlet claimed.

Mr Sunak had previously said he wasn’t going to be forced into “making premature decisions” about HS2 following mounting pressure during the Conservative party conference to provide clarity over the future of the infrastructure project.

READ MORE Tory winners and losers at Conference – nobody’s talking about Boris

The announcement confirms after days of speculation that the northern leg of the controversial project has been shelved.

The PM and other conservative ministers batted away questions about HS2 throughout their conference in Manchester.

The first indications that the leg to Manchester could be scrapped came after The Independent reported that ministers were considering shelving the northern phase because of concerns about soaring costs and delays.

According to the outlet a cost estimate revealed that the government has already spent £2.3bn on stage two of the railway from Birmingham to Manchester, but that ditching the northern phase could save up to £34bn.

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