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Business group calls for HS2 trains to run along North Wales Main Line

13 May 2022 2 minute read
HS2 running past Conwy Castle. Picture by Growth Track 360

A business group have called for the electrification of the North Wales Main Line so that HS2 trains can run along the track.

Growth Track 360 want the line from Holyhead to Crewe and Warrington electrified so that trains travelling up from London to Birmingham can continue along to track to the north of Wales.

HS2 has been categorised as an England and Wales project despite the fact that no part of the track is included in Wales.

A report by Cardiff University found that if it had been designated as an England-only project, Wales could have received an extra £514m investment in its rail infrastructure between 2011-12 and 2019-20.

But Growth Track 360, which represents businesses in the north of Wales and Cheshire region, want Wales to benefit from HS2 and have commissioned a series of conceptual artworks to help the public visualise the proposed improvements which would.

Produced by Nataliia Marchuk, a Ukrainian Fine Arts undergraduate at the University of Chester, one shows an HS2 train passing Conwy Castle on an electrified North Wales Main Line.

The full cost of the project was estimated at £750M. Technical challenges would include the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between Anglesey and the mainland.

Such challenges may involve leaving gaps in the overhead line equipment where non-compliant structures exist, and using on-board energy storage systems to power trains across these gaps, they said.

Growth Track 360 business representative and North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council chief executive Ashley Rogers added: “As we strive for a sustainable, net zero carbon future along with economic recovery from the pandemic, it is critical for the UK government to release the funds necessary to accelerate the long overdue investment programme for our region’s rail infrastructure network.”


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Cynan
Cynan
1 year ago

I would still prefer a N-S rail line that runs through Cymru, but for the businesses of Gwynedd and Powys, it would be nice for them to get something out of this currently England Only scheme that we are funding unwillingly to our own detriment

Paul
Paul
1 year ago
Reply to  Cynan

Any line which ran through Gwynedd and Powys would be distinctly S shaped and it would be many things but quick it would not be!

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

Business leaders in the North, and that’s Wales I’m refering to not the England context always used by the media regarding any North South divide. Unlike England we in Wales have North, South, East & West divide. This a tool devised by Whitehall honed over centuries to not only separate the Welsh geographically, but linguistically & culturally too Just look at Wales at night on Google Earth to see the divide. Academia states the Great wall of China is the only manmade structure that can be seen from earth. They were wrong. You can also see Wales Whitehall infrastructure investment… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Y Cymro
Lebowski
Lebowski
1 year ago

Completely seperate our railways to England’s (not physically). Our trains should operate here while theirs operate there. We can then focus on ‘Switzerising’ our network.

Last edited 1 year ago by Lebowski
Gareth
Gareth
1 year ago

These people are dreaming. when our gov asked for parity with London and Manchester for control of the police force, refused, asked for parity with the rest of the UK over the crown estates, refused, when we cant even get parity, how do these people think that we will get investment of billions in our railways by asking. Ha ha, still, I suppose it sounds good.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
1 year ago

The difficulties with the Britannia will be solved this year as new trains will run from London to Crewe on overhead electric wires then switch to diesel to complete the journey to Holyhead.
They will go to ludicrous lengths to avoid investing in Wales .

Gareth
Gareth
1 year ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

And all the while they pollute our air with diesel trains, while hosting the global warming summit in Cornwall, telling the world how green they are, as they refuse to invest in Cymru

Ieu
Ieu
1 year ago

Not my place to tell the unionist gov how to placate the many indycurious here. But their reluctance to do even the most basic of investments in Wales will be the downfall of the union they claim to love.

Unionists, not nationalist, will end up killing the UK.

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
1 year ago

No.

Any expansion of HS2 from England into Wales would only be designed with a view to increasing migration, diluting our population and extracting our resources.

Gareth
Gareth
1 year ago

The people of the north of Wales having been waiting for electrification since the heady days of British Rail but have waited even longer to have a north – south rail link which doesn’t take 5 + hours to traverse 150 miles even before beeching swung his axe to the railways, better north – south link should be first priority. Speeding up the north wales coast line may even be deterimental to the housing crisis within the north of wales , with faster trains, the danger of becoming a commuter zone to service Chester, Merseyside and Wirral is inherent and… Read more »

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