In order to free up space on the busy West Coast Main Line for new services, something will have to give. HS2 Ltd proposes that most long-distance intercity services be removed from the West Coast Main Line once HS2 opens, and the freed line capacity used for new shorter-distance passenger services, principally extra commuter services between Milton Keynes and London.
HS2 Ltd’s argument is that once the new high-speed line reaches Manchester, most Manchester citizens travelling to London will opt to use HS2 instead of the traditional intercity service. The Government’s passenger demand figures show that there will simply not be enough passengers travelling from the intermediate stations between Manchester and London (Stockport, Wilmslow, Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent) to maintain the same number of traditional intercity services to London as today, in parallel with the new HS2 Manchester-London services. The traditional Manchester-London intercity services could therefore be reduced in number – in HS2 Ltd’s plan, from three trains per hour to one.
But this would severely comprise the intermediate towns and cities, places with no compensating HS2 service. Today, Stoke-on-Trent benefits from two fast intercity services to London per hour. In HS2 Ltd’s plan, this would be halved to one train per hour. Stockport currently receives three trains per hour to London. In 2033, with the completion of HS2 Phase 2 between London and Manchester, this would be cut by two-thirds to one train per hour. But this is not all. In HS2 Ltd’s plan, Wilmslow would lose all its direct trains to London altogether.
Network Rail has recently published its own research on the possible re-purposing of the existing north-south rail lines once HS2 is built, and although its proposals differ in some respects from those of HS2 Ltd, it too suggests that existing intercity services between London and Manchester can be cut. It notes that HS2 Phase Two can potentially release capacity on the West Coast Main Line, through 'Inter-city services on the existing network between Handsacre [near Lichfield], Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester Piccadilly predominantly being delivered by HS2.'
That may be fine for Manchester Piccadilly passengers, but there are no plans for HS2 services to call at Stoke-on-Trent. So Network Rail’s plans, like HS2 Ltd’s, would leave Stoke marginalised.
On the same route, Macclesfield and
Stockport will also see a reduction in services, as they too receive no HS2
services in place of the lost intercity trains. Network Rail’s proposals also
suggest that Wilmslow would see service cuts too, because, as they say: Euston to …Manchester via Wilmslow…services
will run on the dedicated HS2 line.
Wilmslow, like Stoke, Macclesfield and
Stockport, will receive no HS2 service in compensation for the loss of existing
rail services.
