Wilmslow, one of the principal towns in Mr. Osborne’s constituency, currently receives one train to London per hour. But under plans set out by HS2 Ltd and Network Rail, it will lose its direct connection to London altogether.
Ministers now say that one of the key aims of HS2 is to free-up space on existing rail lines for extra commuter services. As I pointed out in my last post, adding extra commuter services to the West Coast Main Line cannot be achieved without reducing existing long-distance services, and this is exactly what is proposed by HS2 Ltd and Network Rail.
The argument is that, when Manchester passengers are served by HS2 trains, most of the ‘ordinary’ intercity services between Manchester and London (currently operated by Virgin Trains) can be axed - and the spare line capacity used to run new commuter services.
There are currently three Virgin trains per hour from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, with the following calling patterns:
xx.00 London Euston - Stoke-on-Trent – Macclesfield – Stockport - Manchester Piccadilly
xx.20 London Euston – Milton Keynes - Stoke-on-Trent – Stockport - Manchester Piccadilly
xx.40 London Euston – Crewe – Wilmslow – Stockport - Manchester Piccadilly
When the HS2 line is constructed to Manchester, three HS2 services per hour are predicted to run between London and Manchester. However, these will not call at (or indeed pass through) any of the intermediate stations listed above.
HS2 Ltd’s document giving indicative service patterns for existing services once HS2 is built shows two of the three ‘traditional’ London-Manchester intercity services being axed – the surviving service being the train calling at Stoke-on-Trent – Macclesfield – Stockport - Manchester Piccadilly.
Axing the other two London-Manchester intercity services per hour will mean that Stoke-on-Trent's services to London are halved in number, and Wilmslow left with no direct service to London.
Network Rail goes even further. In a recent document setting out how services could be re-organised on the existing lines once HS2 is completed, it suggests that all rail services between London and Manchester could travel on the new high-speed line and thus bypass all the intermediate towns – leaving passengers in those towns, including Stoke and Wilmslow, to travel to their nearest HS2 station and change there. This 'hub and spoke' model is shown in Network Rail's diagram:
