Two and a half years ago, Sheffield city council offered its backing to proposals to relocate the proposed HS2 station in Sheffield to the city centre, rather than the original Meadowhall plan.
Councillor Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield city council, said at the time: “We have always believed that our region’s HS2 station must be located where the greatest economic impact, transport benefits and job creation will be delivered – and that is in Sheffield city centre.”
However, the Financial Times reported last week that the high-speed rail network, which planned to connect London to Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, could be cut to save costs with no trains serving north of the Midlands, cutting out Leeds and Sheffield entirely from the route. The transport secretary Grant Shapps last month published a report which suggested the project could be delayed by up to seven years and run £26bn over budget.
The leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn weighed in with criticism, telling The Yorkshire Post that the “danger of axing everything north of Birmingham would be awful”.
“The reality is that rail infrastructure investment north of Birmingham is much lower than London and the South East, and if it axed there then that indicates a lack of ambition to improve transport infrastructure to the north.”
Read more over at yorkshirepost.co.uk.
