The Railway Industry Association (RIA) has issued a plea to the Government that it should stop its dithering and indecisiveness on whether to extend HS2 beyond Birmingham to Manchester

The current situation in which there appears to be a vacuum regarding making a decision needs to stop, as the uncertainty is not helping the confidence of all those involved in the project.

Last week Sadiq Khan, London‘s mayor, and four northern mayors, sent a plea to Rishi Sunak about the indecision over the extension. The Leader of Cheshire East Council also wrote a letter last week to the Prime Minister in a similar vein.

Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association, said: “The Railway Industry Association and our rail business members are getting increasingly concerned about reports that HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester will be scrapped.

“These companies already have around 30,000 people working on the scheme with a huge amount of construction ongoing and are set to employ even more – together with billions of pounds of investment – on HS2 Phase 2. The uncertainty around all this is potentially devastating to their plans, all of which were developed in good faith, that to get the full benefits the full scheme between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds would be built.

“This constant salami-slicing of the scheme betrays HS2’s original purpose to improve the UK’s connectivity and economy, whilst enabling added capacity to the classic network and helping the Government deliver on its Net Zero targets.

“A decision to cancel would also send a terrible message about the UK’s ability to deliver major infrastructure projects to international investors. We understand there are cost concerns but this should be a reason to engage with the industry to find a solution not a reason to cancel a project which will be delivering benefits for generations to come.

“We still hope the full HS2 scheme goes ahead, and urge the Government to press on with legislation taking HS2 to Manchester in the King’s Speech next month. We also ask that all the political parties commit to delivering it in the months ahead and also beyond the next General Election.”