Manchester and London don’t always land on the same side of an argument. Think Blur v Oasis, Arsenal v City.
As we know, perspectives on life can differ from South to North. But when North and South poles align, it’s time to listen.
Next week, Parliament will be presented with the unanimous view of London and Manchester that plans for HS2 between the two cities are not right at either end of the line. If we don’t change them, it will have serious future implications for both cities and saddle future generations with the sub-standard services we’ve all had to put up with for much of our lives.
As England’s two most-visited cities, travel between us should be easy. Paris and Lyon are 50 miles further apart than London and Manchester but the train journey takes half an hour less. In fact, it is so good that France plans to scrap internal flights.
By contrast, it has been a common experience in my six years as Mayor of Greater Manchester to start a meeting with a visiting overseas dignitary with a nervous reference to their journey. “Hope the trains weren’t too bad!” is my standard conversation starter. We laugh it off in a British way but it shouldn’t have to be like this.
I’ll never forget my embarrassment when a visiting Minister from overseas had to camp out for an afternoon in my offices because all the trains back to London had been cancelled. Is this good enough for a country like ours?
Visitors to our capital should be able to take a trip to its second-most important economic centre without losing half a day, half a grand and half a head of hair.
There are a host of reasons why our railways are so unreliable. But one of the main ones is infrastructure. Where other countries have built new lines, we’ve had a history of patching up. The result is that, in city-centre Manchester, far too many trains are trying to get in and out of the surface station at Piccadilly on Victorian infrastructure. It doesn’t take much to go wrong for it all to end in delays.
HS2 was supposed to solve this — and build new separate capacity — but we are on the verge of repeating the same mistakes.
Rather than build HS2 at Manchester Piccadilly as an underground through station — and separate new lines and trains from the congestion above — the current plan is to create a new terminus on the surface, with new platforms alongside existing ones. This cut-price option means greater risk of delays and a worse experience for passengers from London arriving in the North.
In a country serious that is about levelling up, travellers from the South should be able to arrive at a station in the North and expect a similar standard of station to those they have just left behind in London. Instead, they will arrive at a sprawling, crowded station with passengers criss-crossing in all directions. Rather than closing regional divides, HS2 risks becoming a permanent symbol of them.
Things are not right either at the London end of the line.
Rumours persist that HS2 will end in west London and take years to get to Euston. Now I know it’s only four miles from Wembley, which is a common journey for Mancunians, but Old Oak Common is not exactly convenient for most travellers from the North, is it? Ending the service there would be the railway equivalent of one of those Ryanair tickets where you think you’re travelling to close to a European capital but end up at a little airport miles away.
One of the remaining justifications for HS2 is that it will bring economic growth to the regions. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s new plan is for “12 Canary Wharfs”.
One of the few locations in the UK that could actually deliver on this high ambition is Manchester Piccadilly. We have the land to make it the beating heart of a resurgent North. But here’s the irony: the current cost-cutting station design takes away the very land that could instead host thousands of future jobs.
So 15 years after HS2 was first proposed, we are still miles from the right solution. This is why Sadiq Khan and I, and the leaders of Camden and Manchester, are today making an appeal to the Government. Please listen to London and Manchester before it is too late.
I know there are differing views on HS2. But I also think there is a majority in the country that could agree on one thing about it: if we are going to do it, at least do it properly.
