Trains from London to Manchester will be SLOWER and have fewer seats than they do now under latest HS2 plans

Trains between Manchester and London will have fewer seats and travel slower under the latest HS2 plans, MPs have been told. The high-speed railway line will no longer reach Manchester, but the government has said HS2 trains will reach the city on existing lines.

However, MPs were told today (January 10) that, unless Piccadilly station is extended or changes are made at Crewe, these trains will have fewer seats than existing services running between London and Manchester. And although the high-speed trains would get from London to Birmingham faster on the new line, they would travel slower than existing services when they join the west coast mainline.

HS2 Ltd executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson also revealed that the total cost of the first phase of the project - from London to Birmingham - has now risen above £60bn. He told the transport committee that no land bought by HS2 Ltd has been sold since Rishi Sunak said he would cancel the second phase of the scheme, but 'tens of millions' of pounds have been spent on buying more land.

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The Prime Minister said he would scrap the Northern section of HS2 in a speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester last year, blaming spiraling costs and severe delays. But he said that HS2 trains would still reach the city by travelling on existing lines.

However, speaking in Parliament this morning (January 10), Sir Jon said that these HS2 trains would need to be roughly the same length as the Pendolino trains that currently serve the London to Manchester route, but they would feature fewer seats. He also confirmed that because the HS2 trains cannot tilt, they will not be able to travel