High Speed Rail

Tristram Hunt Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

Huge investment—£2.2 billion, I think —is already going into the area that serves the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. I appreciate that he might like us to have a high-speed link to his area. We are being ambitious, but I am afraid that that ambition can only go so far.

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

This morning I received an e-mail from a constituent who said he found it utterly incredible that the line should go from Birmingham to Manchester without stopping at the north Staffordshire conurbation. There is anger in Stoke-on-Trent that HS2 will just skim the west of the potteries and not stop there. What benefits can HS2 bring to my constituents? Will the Secretary of State explain the current thinking for a stop at Crewe, rather than one along the M6? What assurances can he give that the existing west coast main line will not be affected?

[Mr McLoughlin]

The hon. Gentleman needs to look at the two documents we have published, but I have made it very clear that today is the start of the process and I expect him to make representations, as he has just done. I know Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area incredibly well. We have made improvements to its road infrastructure, but they have been very controversial over many years.