Manchester was the world’s original modern city, with an economy encompassing the textile trade, key scientific breakthroughs, and the world’s first passenger railway. Today’s Manchester is just as pioneering, with an economic base that has diversified into new knowledge-intensive and high-tech industries. The city is home to 65 of the FTSE 100 companies and is a focus for businesses which serve local, regional and international markets in areas such as legal and financial services as well as e-commerce.
Manchester is uniquely placed to attract further investment. Last year’s European Cities Monitor ranked Manchester second-best city in the UK to locate a business in, and the twelfth-best in Europe.
Its economic growth, however, is becoming constrained. The expansion of knowledge-intensive industries is dependent on quick intercity transport links and, while Manchester is a city fit for the 21st century, its outdated rail network most certainly isn’t.
With an increase in usage of 82 per cent over the last 10 years, there is little spare capacity on the network around Greater Manchester, and journey times of over two hours to London and over one and a half hours to Birmingham are unimpressive when compared to our European competitors. We cannot continue to rely on incremental improvements to our existing rail infrastructure; the West Coast Main Line modernisation was only completed in December 2008 and is forecast to again reach capacity by 2020, and there is a law of diminishing returns to further investment. Instead, it is far better to invest in new high-speed infrastructure that will deliver a quantum gain in connectivity and capacity, while also freeing up space on the existing network for important local travel and freight services.
The Manchester Independent Economic Review, the largest study of a city-region, concluded that there are significant economic advantages to be gained by linking business in Greater Manchester with that in other areas. A new high-speed line will allow firms in Manchester to access quickly new and more diversified markets throughout the whole of the UK and Europe. HS2 will not only provide a huge boost to Manchester’s already prosperous economy, but will do so in a sustainable manner.
The introduction of HS2 would also bring significant economic benefits that spread far beyond the immediate Greater Manchester area. Almost 10,000 jobs would be generated across the region covered by the Northern Way partnership, boosting productivity and growing the economic output across the area by £967 million per year. This demonstrates the substantial benefits HS2 will offer the whole of the north of England, rebalancing the economy and helping to reduce the £30 billion annual north-south productivity gap that is preventing the UK from reaching its full potential.
Manchester is a major European city in its own right, yet presently it feels as though Mancunians have been excluded from the debate on this pivotal infrastructure project, which could have a potentially massive beneficial impact on its long-term economic prospects. Why, for example, is their no HS2 roadshow planned for Manchester Piccadilly Station complex or any other station in the North West that might feature as a potential point of embarkation for the Classic Convertible services that are planned to run from day one of HS2 (phase 1) operation, eg. Stockport or Wilmslow? Plenty of roadshows planned along the route of HS2, phase 1, where staff will doubtless receive outright hostility from hordes of well organised (in other words the same few individuals planted at strategic intervals to make it seem like a horde?) of anti-HS2 protesters but no roadshow in the areas where they are likely to be able to gauge the depth of (relatively silent) public support – seems like rather a strange PR strategy to follow?
What the Manchester Independent Economic Review actually says, as I suspect Richard Leese knows, is that transport investment in the North of England is a higher priority than HS2, and that proposals such as HS2 need robust scrutiny. In fact, research shows that HS2 will widen the North-South divide, benefitting London most. See http://bit.ly/eVrVTT
Stuff and nonsense! The vast majority of people who use trains for work are commuters, not workers travelling long distance intercity from one workplace to another. Therefore the priority must be to upgrade the rail infrastucture in major conurbations and between major conurbations such as Liverpool to Manchester and Manchester to Leeds/Sheffield etc. These routes are often overcrowded at peak times and it is not unusual to stand up for the whole of a 45-60min journey. This is the reality, not worrying about some chief exec shaving 10 mins off his 2 hour journey. Such durations are insignificant compared to commuting every day for 50 mins on an old, tatty overcrowded rustbucket!
Poor grammar. Dull read.
The myth that HS2 is the only potential solution to overcrowding on the WCML needs killing! The DfT already has alternative proposals that would allow travel at speeds that comply with EU definitions of high speed rail and would benefit a far wider population than Manchester alond, as is the case with HS2. This alternative proposal is RP2 which by further improvements of extending trains to 12 car sets and changing one of the four first class cars to standard class could produce up to 175% extra capacity. Such a scheme could be introduced more quickly and far less expensively than HS2/HS3 and have wider benefits for more towns and cities which could access such improved rail services. Manchester is effectively persuing a ‘beggar my neighbour’ policy by persuing HS2 which wilol deny other north west towns and cities of funding for essential regional infrastructure improvements.
I disagree with above comment this article was a great read I found it very informative and I would like to gain further information on high-speed rail.