Working to Get High Speed Rail to Sheffield
After a proposal by network rail was released to build a new high speed line excluding the east coast line and the region of South Yorkshire and Humberside, including the cities of Sheffield, Leeds, York and Newcastle, I would like you to know that I’m doing as much as I can to change their recommendation. Instead my preferred option would be to create a national route encompassing the major cities of Britain including the region of Yorkshire and the North East.
With the recommendation to only create a high speed rail network along the West coast mainline, it would seem that the plans to rejuvenate and improve the nation’s railways have failed to take into account the possible benefits such a proposal could give to the businesses and communities of Yorkshire and the North East. Already we have seen reports that if the proposals were to take into account the Yorkshire and North East regions then we could see possibly £29bn in transport benefits for Sheffield and Leeds.
Although the recommendation made by Network rail may have some sway in the governments decision, the final say will lie with the government and High Speed 2 and I shall be doing all I can to ensure that the case for a Sheffield and East coast line is heard. Although the implementations and actual construction of the high speed rail lines are some way away, I believe that such a project could create infrastructure and opportunities that Sheffield could benefit from for generations.
The city of Sheffield suffered massively in the late seventies and eighties when government development projects overlooked Sheffield. That is the last thing we want to happen again and I believe that the high speed rail project could provide the opportunity to ensure such mistakes are not made again.
