An Alsager councillor and former rail worker who was Mayor of Cheshire East last year has given his backing to the reinstatement of the Curzon Street- Crewe leg as quickly as possible. 

Nub News revealed here that the UK Government is reportedly set to announce original HS2 plans will be revived running from London Euston to Crewe, according to LBC. 

The route was scheduled to connect London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, but the northern leg of phase two was scrapped by Rishi Sunak's Conservative government in October 2023. 

Phase 2a was to connect the West Midlands to Crewe, with 'Phase 2b' from Crewe to Manchester. 

Keir Starmer is reportedly preparing to reverse the cancellation of 'Phase 2a', as the route already has parliamentary approval. 

This will mean the high-speed line will run from the capital beyond Birmingham to Crewe after all. 

Alsager councillor Rod Fletcher, who sits on Alsager Town Council and Cheshire East Council, says he hopes the new Government sees sense and confirms reinstatement of the Curzon Street- Crewe leg as quickly as possible. 

Cllr Rod Fletcher. (Cheshire East Council)

Cllr Fletcher's railway career began as a junior clerk with British Rail, working his way up to become control manager for a train operating company. He worked in the control offices in Crewe and Manchester and also at traction depots in Crewe and Gorton.  

His roles included rail freight distribution manager for the London Midland Region, national van controller for Rail Express Systems and his final position was company control manger for Transrail/EWS.   

He told Nub News exclusively: "The Office of Budget Responsibility has said that the line only running between Old Oak Common and Curzon Street is not value for money. Curzon Street is a former Rail Parcels depot quite a walk from the centre of Birmingham. 

 "Old Oak Common is the site of the former Engine Shed that provided Locos to work trains out of Paddington.  

"The Curzon Street - Crewe leg is reasonably cheap to build compared to Euston- Old Oak Common-Euston due to the required extensive tunnelling etc. 

"Whilst people can change into other services at Old Oak Common some people do like to arrive at a London Terminus. 

 "In British Rail days when it was not possible to run services between Euston- Birmingham- Wolverhampton under a contingency plan there was an hourly service Wolverhampton-Birmingham- Paddington. 

"If capacity could be found to run some of the so called compatible new Services through from Curzon Street to Paddington there would be less pressure on building the very expensive Old Oak Common- Euston line. 

 "This would allow the Government to concentrate on building the former much cheaper 2A line. 

"Concern has already been raised about reduction in capacity should the new compatible non tilting trains come on the West Coast Main Line at Hansacre resulting in less margins for freight services and possibly the slower and cheaper London North Western Services plus even more traffic on the M6." 

Want to know more about Alsager?

Free from clickbait, pop-up ads and unwanted surveys, Alsager Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

Please consider following Alsager Nub News on Facebook or Twitter

You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter here - it features the top five stories of the week