Staffordshire Connector: the necessary link to the North?

Move over High Speed 2 Phase 2a… the ‘Staffordshire Connector’ is coming.

That’s the gist of a report produced at the prompting of two powerful metro mayors representing Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. While Andy Burnham is still in place in Manchester, elections earlier this year toppled his former partner Andy Street in favour of Labour’s Richard Parker.

But that didn’t stop the work which Conservative mayor Street had championed hard after then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2 entirely north of Birmingham (RAIL 994). And while Burnham and Street both stressed last February that they were not looking to reverse Sunak’s decision and reinstate HS2 - “This is not HS2 by the back door,” said Burnham back then (RAIL 1003) - the Staffordshire Connector will follow the same route if the Department for Transport accepts the mayors’ new proposal.