HS2 Phase 2b: Western Leg
The Western leg goes from Crewe to Manchester, connecting to the West Coast Main Line south of Wigan.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have made the decision to postpone all of our public face-to-face engagement events and meetings for the safety of our staff, stakeholders and communities. We have also put in place alternative ways of communicating and engaging regularly with communities to ensure that we can continue to inform, listen and respond.
The HS2 Helpdesk remains operational all day, every day, and is your first point of contact: Freephone 08081 434 434; Minicom 08081 456 472; Email: [email protected]. If you contact us by post there will be an extended delay in us responding to you.
The Western leg goes from Crewe to Manchester, connecting to the West Coast Main Line south of Wigan.
Following the conclusion of the Oakervee Review into HS2, the government has decided to proceed with legislation for the Western Leg of Phase 2b as a priority. As such, we intend to submit a hybrid Bill for the Western Leg in early 2022 or sooner if possible.
We have published updated plans for the Western Leg, which also show the work we need to carry out to the existing rail network to enable HS2 trains to serve stations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Wigan, Preston and Carlisle.
These changes are a result of ongoing design development and feedback received during previous consultations and engagement with stakeholders and communities. They are described in more detail here.
In addition, factsheets have been produced to provide information on the emerging proposals for measures to manage the design process for Phase 2b and to control impacts which may arise from the construction and operation of the new railway. These factsheets can be found here.
On 7th October 2020 the Minister of State for Transport announced a consultation on the following four proposed changes to the design of the Western Leg of HS2 Phase 2b:
The proposed changes for consultation are:
The consultation closed on 11 December 2020. You can find out more about is here.
Between 6 June and 6 September 2019 the Secretary of State for Transport consulted on 11 proposed refinements to the HS2 Phase 2b proposals.
In October 2020 the Minister of State for Transport, having considered the responses received, published his decision on whether to include the refinements proposed for the Western Leg. This can be found here.
In order to ensure that land needed for HS2 is protected from conflicting development, safeguarding for the Western Leg of Phase 2b was updated in October 2020. More information about this can be found in the HS2 safeguarding section on gov.uk.