Council to lobby HS2 again over 'concerns' in planned M56 and Metrolink changes for high-speed rail project

Manchester City Council plans to contest 'issues of particular concern' contained in proposed changes to the law that would bring the controversial HS2 railway to the region. They include 'major' changes to junction six of the M56 motorway and nearby highways, together with the design's impact on Metrolink.

The high-speed, north-south line from Manchester to London via Birmingham and Crewe would be built over decades in phases. Phase '2b' would connect Crewe to Manchester, with the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill submitted to Parliament last January.

Manchester is fully supportive of HS2 and the vast benefits it should bring, but wants an underground station at Manchester Piccadilly instead of a surface level one. The Bill would grant powers and permission for HS2 Ltd to build and operate the railway, together with the creation of new HS2 stations at Piccadilly and at Manchester Airport, along with a tunnel from Davenport Green to Ardwick.

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Plans for the tunnel include ventilation shafts at Junction 3A of the M56 motorway; at Withington Golf Club on Palatine Road; a site near the Christie Hospital on Wilmslow Road and near Fallowfield retail park on Birchfield Road, reveals a council report.

The council 'petitioned' against elements of the Bill as it stood, with the leader of Manchester city council, councillor Bev Craig, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) officials and Manchester Central MP, Lucy Powell, all pressing home Manchester's case to MPs for a four-platform, underground HS2 rail station at Piccadilly, rather than the six-platform, turn-back station above ground contained in the Bill, at hearings of the