Overground HS2 Piccadilly plan is 'cutting off Manchester's ambition'

Transport bosses have been accused of "cutting off Manchester's ambition", after plans for an underground HS2 station at Piccadilly were shelved.

Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh blasted the decision, saying the North is being left to "pick up the scraps" while investment is ploughed into rail in London and the South East.

Ms Haigh backed the MEN's campaign, which is calling on the Government not to botch one of the most important transport projects ever to be built in the north of England.

READ MORE: Drivers will have to 'sprint' full length of train to get away on time in 'short-sighted' plan for Piccadilly station

It was widely expected that a new underground station on the northern flank of Piccadilly train station would be built as part of the HS2 line from London to Manchester, via Birmingham, Crewe and Manchester Airport. But in April, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the underground option had been ruled out because it would 'take a lot of money out of other parts of the network'.

Instead the Government is proposing a cut-price overground station which will see trains emerge from the ground in Ardwick before travelling on a mile-long viaduct of up to 12 metres in height to reach the new surface station. Leaders in Greater Manchester say that's short-sighted, will result in the loss of 500,000sq metres of prime development land, cut off Metrolink lines and blight the city centre by turning swathes of land into a building site.

Ms Haigh told the Northern Agenda podcast: "This is just one of the many issues that were part of the Government's integrated rail plan, which is anything but integrated.

"They're not delivering what they promised. It is cutting off Manchester's and the North's