Research and Reports

Ticket to Ride: How high speed rail for Liverpool can realise the Northern Powerhouse

Proposals for an east-west ‘High Speed 3’ across the north should start with a direct link for Liverpool into HS2, according to this report. The idea is for a roughly 20-mile link largely paid for locally through around £2bn of contributions: Liverpool’s proposed City Region could contribute half the expected cost of the link through Tax Increment Financing, with the percentage rising to 66% by building in a contribution from the Mersey Tunnels tolls. Without the link, train times between London and Liverpool using a mix of HS2 and ‘classic’ route are expected to be 106 minutes once HS2’s first phase opens, dropping to 92min when phase 2a follows. However, it is thought that building the link could bring this down to 75min or less - as well as making connections to Manchester and Manchester Airport quicker too.