The Prime Minister has told Lichfield commuters future transport plans will see a “turn up and go” style service operating on the Cross City Line.
Rishi Sunak made his comments in a letter to MP Michael Fabricant following the decision to scrap Phase 2 of HS2.
He told the Lichfield MP that funding would now be allocated to other local transport schemes to boost connectivity for local residents.
They include enhancements to deliver more trains to and from Birmingham.
The Prime Minister said:
“Under previous HS2 plans, Lichfield would have lost its fast conventional service to London currently provided by Avanti. We will maintain most, though not all, services on the conventional fast line, including to Lichfield.
“Lichfield Trent Valley and Lichfield City stations are major beneficiaries of the Midlands Rail Hub, a new £1.75billion investment to greatly increase capacity through central Birmingham and create a South-East style network across much of the Midlands.
“Services on the Cross City Line to New Street will be increased by 50% to a Tube-style turn up and go frequency.
“Staffordshire gains a share of the new £2.2billion Midlands Local Integrated Transport Settlement, an entirely new fund for councils outside the combined authority areas – smaller cities, counties, towns and countryside – to invest in local transport.”
Rishi Sunak
Mr Sunak confirmed that while the northern leg of HS2 would be axed, work would continue on developing the junction between the high speed rail line and the existing West Coast Main Line at Handsacre.
“Safeguarding and blight will be lifted on the route around the Ridwares, Kings Bromley, Blithbury, Abbots Bromley, Stockwell Heath and elsewhere.
“Work on the Phase 1 route will continue. There will need to be more work than currently planned at the junction at Handsacre to accommodate more trains.”
Rishi Sunak
“A huge sigh of relief”
Lichfield’s MP said that while he welcomed the improvements to existing transport infrastructure, he did have concerns around the impact of work to complete the HS2 route in the district.
“This is good news for the constituency, though I will find out how the increased work around the Handsacre junction will affect – if at all – people living in the area.
“Meanwhile, everyone north of the Handsacre junction can release a huge sigh of relief.
“I understand there are discussions about an HS2 station in Lichfield district which, eventually, will provide an ultra-fast service to London – possibly under an hour. This will provide a real benefit to the economy of Lichfield which has only suffered so far as a consequence of HS2.
“Of course, all that is in the future. In a couple of weeks, I shall be having a meeting with the managing director of Avanti to discuss improved fast services from Lichfield to London and the north.
“And a tube style hop-on and hop-off service to Birmingham New Street and beyond will be a real boon to the area – provided there are no leaves on the line.”
Michael Fabricant
Services on the cross city line were halved after covid, so an increase of 50% leaves us 25% down on the previous service. Only the Tories would cut services and ask you to thank them.
I live near Lichfield City Station and work in Aston.
To take the train to work costs roughly twice it costs me in fuel for my car and takes twice as long (with the walk at either end).
Until the fundamental economics of using the train are changed public transport is not going to feature in many peoples transport decisions.
Going north from Lichfield, capacity on the current WCML will REDUCE. Although HS2 trains can run on the current track they don’t tilt like the Pendolinos so can only go max 110mph rather than 125. Also one half a HS2 train can use existing stations because a full HS2 unit is too long for the platforms. So an HS2 train will have seating capacity of around 500 compared to 650 on the current Pendolinos.
This is government spin at its absolute worst. As others have said, the frequency of the cross-city line was halved during covid and this will only bring back the service we enjoyed until 2020 – and there was already a plan for that anyway, nothing to do with trashing HS2. It’s also rubbish that HS2 would have left Trent Valley with worse service, quite the opposite in fact, as extra capacity on the mainline would have enabled many more fast trains to stop at Lichfield. Its a shame that no-one ever explained that to Mr Fabricant, part of the reason it’s being axed are because communication about the benefits was so abysmal.
The only rail schemes that could come close to compensating Lichfield would be introducing trains from Lichfield to Burton and Derby, which would require a new platform on the bridge at Trent Valley, and reopening the line to Walsall. Both schemes are in the region’s long term rail strategy, but presumably far too ambitious for this bunch to consider.
Electrify and double track the Alrewas line, connect this line to the WCML and build an HS2 station at Lichfield. Relieves the Burton to Birmingham line and brings Burton and Derby into the HS2 system, plus providing an alternative route to London from these places. Relatively low cost, but massive benefits for Lichfield and the surrounding areas with incoming investment. Of course if that’s what Lichfield wants. Don’t waste time talking to who knows who and kicking the can down the road, please get on and collectively make some decisions this in NOT party political.
There’s two trains an hour in each direction on the Cross City Line. Increasing that by 50% does not produce “Tube-style turn up and go frequency”. I’ve been to London, tube trains are a lot more frequent than one every twenty minutes. Perhaps Rishi Sunak thinks no one who lives near Cross City Line knows anything about the Tube. Remember how the government announced lots of things that the money from cancelling phase 2 of HS2 would be spent on? It turned out a lot of the things on that list already existed, or had already been funded. When this was pointed out the government tried to spin it by claiming the list they’re presented as things money would be spent on was actually only intended to be representative examples. Remember how Boris Johnson kept saying the Conservatives would build 40 new hospitals? Over the last 13 years the Conservatives have repeatedly lied about what they will deliver, don’t believe their promises.
False promises in a desperate plea to win votes. None of these schemes will happen. Half of sunaks list has already gone eg. Leeds tram along with the other half which was already built eg. Tram to Manchester airport. The fact they can’t even build a new train line half way up our tiny island shows they’re incapable of organising several local schemes.
I would like to see the cross city line extended up to Alrewas in order to provide access to rail users across our region for the National Memorial Arboretum. By extension, improved facilities at Alrewas could also include travellers from Burton, Derby and Leicester if the line is improved from this direction…..just a thought
Never mind a “turn up and go” rail service from Lichfield on the Cross City line into Birmingham, a rail service where the trains actually turned up when they should do would be a good start!
On the Cross City line in the West Midlands Centro area between Four Oaks and Longbridge between 2000 and 2013 there was a ten minute frequency service which is considered by transport planners as a “turn up and go” service. It was around then the service started to decline, under the stewardship of the lamentable London Midland who were more interested in “London” than “Midland”. The Government of which Mr. Fabricant is a member did the square root of nothing to address the poor performance of the operator, The Cross City can only improve when there are sufficient drivers are in place to run the advertised timetable and when there is a commitment for all the stations to retain a human presence throughout the day.
Kevin…I like your thought but times have changed. Prior to the Beeching demolition of local stations few people had access to their own transport. More especially this limited the ability to where you worked. Conversely, once people acquired their own cars the convenience of them was the end of the viability of local trains. As has been already expressed, if the service is not very regular then it will not serve modern lifestyle. Different work arrangements, since covid, is also a large factor. Even local bus services struggle to make a profit.
Trains are still useful for long distances but useless for the regular shop. I doubt that the cost to profit of building and operating such a station makes it unlikely to happen.
I note that the transport fantasies of Messrs Sunak and Fabricant continue apace.
The frequency of trains from Lichfield to Birmingham is determined by the capacity of Birmingham New Street – which has an excellent claim to being the worst bottleneck on our rail network.
There is no room for any additional trains and the station cannot be extended, as its retaining walls are now an integral part of the foundations of adjacent buildings.
There was a long term solution to local rail travel problems in the Midlands and North, but the conservative government has just cancelled it.
London and the South has far better rail transport because of long term investment in the necessary infrastructure.
This really isn’t difficult.
Am I reading it right if HS2 had gone ahead we would of lost our existing train from Lichfield to London.
Was the train from Lichfield to Birmingham in the original scheme, so you could get on HS2 at Birmingham, but would of been slower than the existing line
They stopped the Express bus from Lichfield, to Birmingham, not paying which then carried on to London
All I can see with HS2, is with the dithering of the government, it is now no good to anyone, lives and livelihoods ruined and an astronomical cost and scars on the landscape which will never fully recover and disruption still going on, when will it ever be finished?
I share Ken H’s problems in trying to follow the government’s contortions over HS2.
The main aim of the ORIGINAL scheme was to move long distance expresses on to their own dedicated line and create much needed extra capacity on the WCML, MML and ECML. Under this scheme, Lichfield could have been given much improved north / south services, using the WCML.
By cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham, all these benefits have been lost and current services will indeed be cut, in order to run HS2 trains on the existing lines.
This is what we’ve been trying to explain to opponents of HS2 over the past few years.
The U.K. is now stuck with a ‘back of the envelope’ transport policy, which fails everybody.
I still suspect that all stopping services through Lichfield will eventually disappear, to fit in more expresses, and you will have to start all your journeys with a trip to New Street.
My one hope is that more short term decisions do not prevent resurrection of the full scheme.
Exactly right Atrax. How on earth he can claim Lichfield will have better services as a result of this is beyond me. We’ve had all the disruption and will probably end up losing stopping trains on the mainline in the long term, so the worse of both worlds, and unfortunately playing on people’s ignorance about how much HS2 would have hugely benefited Lichfield