Midlands Rail Hub plans for East Midlands 'put on hold'

Midlands Rail Hub enhancements designed to provide better connectivity and more services for the East Midlands region appear to have been put on hold following recent announcements from the Chancellor.

Despite a government commitment to the project, it’s now emerged that only schemes in the West Midlands are being taken forward.

The £1.7 billion scheme described as the “biggest upgrade” of the Midlands rail network for a generation, is designed to improve rail services in the east and west midlands with thousands of extra services annually benefiting both regions.

The scheme is designed to add up to 300 additional trains on the rail network each day into Birmingham and provided faster, more frequent services for over 50 locations including Nottingham, Leicester, Bromsgrove, Nuneaton, Worcester, Hereford and Cardiff.

However, following the recent review of transport projects by the Department for Transport and the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves’ in the Spending Review, it’s emerged that the scheme has been scaled back with only projects focused on the West Midlands being taken forward at this stage.

The Spending Review document stated that the government would invest in the “critical national infrastructure needed to connect the country’s cities and towns”.

Part of a settlement of £10.2bn for rail enhancements would progress the next stage of what it termed “Midlands Rail Hub West”, strengthening connections from Birmingham across the West Midlands and to other regions.

There had been rumours the government wanted to scrap the Midlands Rail Hub (MRH), but lobbying from the West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker, and other politicians appears to have persuaded the Treasury to retain the project.

Parker said: “I was always confident, based on the discussions that we had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and with the Secretary of State for Transport, that this project would be committed to and I'm very pleased it has been. We've had confirmation that the projects, or the plans, that are critical to the West Midlands will be protected.”

Midlands Connect, which researches and develops long-term transport projects across both the East and West Midlands has spearheaded much of the early planning work for MRH.

Its Chief Executive, Maria Machancoses, said: “It's really important that we always think of Midlands Rail Hub as a whole. We need to deliver the whole programme. What government has committed to do, in terms of capital, is to carry on and invest in some of those areas that we know are more mature.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the East Midlands County Combined Authority said: “It's important to clarify that the announcement hasn't said the MRH East Midlands improvements are being scrapped or halted entirely. In fact, work to develop Midlands Rail Hub East continues. The recent announcement primarily relates to the initial investment and early delivery stages focused on MRH West.”

The statement added that: “The East Midlands has historically been underinvested in from a transport perspective. Delivering the full MRH – including both the western and eastern elements – is critical to unlocking the potential of the rail network”.

MRH plans included a West and East chord being built at Bordesley, just east of Birmingham City Centre.

They were designed to allow some services to be diverted into Moor Street and a reinstated Platform 4 at Snow Hill, instead of going into the busy New Street station.

However, it’s now understood that, initially, only the West Chord will be built.

That decision, along with the scrapping of the HS2 eastern leg will clearly have a detrimental impact on services to and from the East Midlands to Birmingham.

News of the delays to MRH delivery emerged as the West Midlands Mayor, local Labour MP’s and other supporters of the scheme met at King’s Norton Station in south Birmingham.

It’s likely to be one of the early beneficiaries of the funding with plans to bring a derelict island platform back into use, with the construction of a new passenger bridge linking back to the existing ticket hall.

The creation of an additional platform at the station will help to reinstate a six-trains-an-hour service on the Cross City line south.

Only four trains an hour have been running since the Covid pandemic and terminating trains serving the new Camp Hill line stations, which are expected to open early next year, will prevent the ten-minute frequency being restored.

Laurence Turner, Northfield MP and member of the Transport Select Committee said: “The Camp Hill services will be good for Birmingham and I'm really glad that people living in Kings Norton will have those connections into other communities, but we also need the line to serve Northfield and Longbridge.

“There's a wider point around the state of this station. The island platform has been out of use for more than 30 years and it shows.”

Figures suggest that the two extra trains, in each direction, per hour, would create 5.4 million new seats each year to places further south, including Redditch, Alvechurch and Barnt Green in Worcestershire.