HS2 Rail Link

Planning Issues, Residential Development | February 25, 2013

The recent announcement of the routes for the upcoming high-speed rail link to the north of England has been met with a mixed response.

At an estimated cost of £32.7billion and the creation of over 100,000 jobs the government are hoping the new routes will free up capacity on the conventional rail network for passengers and freight, ease the traffic burden on motorways and boost economic growth.

With a proposed reduction in journey times between London and Manchester from two hours and eight minutes to one hour and eight minutes, the high speed line to Manchester will include stops at Piccadilly in the city centre and Manchester Airport.

The initial proposals indicate a favoured location for the Manchester Airport station off the M56 motorway, between Warburton Green and Davenport Green, close to Hale Barns.

However, what of the impact on the rural communities?

At AUD Architects we have had to re-evaluate a subterranean residential scheme in Ashley due to the proposed line passing straight through the property. However, with a completion date for the new rail link of some 19 years off, legal challenges being launched or even a change in government and policy scrapping the link HS2 altogether, is this scheme for the bin or does one progress with planned home improvements with an extremely large question mark looming?

It’s funny to think that from the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in 1830 it only took eight years for a rail link to be established to London.