West Coast Main Line

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Connor Naismith) for securing this timely debate. I do not intend to speak for very long—although, unlike the west coast main line, we have plenty of capacity in this debate—because he has set the scene in detail and there is no need to relitigate it too much.

I want to make just two points. The first is about HS2. When it is eventually completed, we will have spent tens of billions of pounds only to achieve the trick of reducing capacity on the west coast main line—and we know why that is. It is because HS2 trains are shorter, but the pinch points, the bottlenecks around Stafford and Crewe stations, will still exist. We will have to have fewer Pendolinos on the line. They will be replaced by shorter HS2 trains with less capacity. It is a ridiculous situation that the Government have inherited, but the fact that HS2 has been mismanaged over many years does not change the reality of the infrastructure. Those pinch points are still preventable, so I hope that Ministers will bring forward proposals—realistic, deliverable solutions—for the capacity problems.

My second point is about Northern Powerhouse Rail—also known as the Liverpool-Manchester railway or HS3, depending on people’s pedigree on the issue—which I understand we will hear more about from the Minister or her colleagues in coming weeks. It is an important project that will deal with the serious capacity issues on the Castlefield corridor in Manchester and at Piccadilly, but it is likely to force more rail traffic on to the west coast main line through Mid Cheshire, particularly the heavily congested section between Winsford and Weaver Junction where the number of tracks goes down from four to two.

Had HS2 phase 2b gone ahead, it would have dealt with that. Now, I have no love for that ridiculous route: in a three-mile stretch, it goes over the top of the Winsford salt mine, a set of subsidence flashes from the 19th century, the underground gas storage plant at Stublach and 60 infrastructure crossing points where pipelines take key chemicals to Runcorn to secure the UK water supply. It is not a route that should ever have gone through sifting; it should never have been in the hybrid Bill. It is symptomatic of the way the project has been mismanaged that we are where we are. Indisputably, however, had it been possible to build it—who knows?—it would have provided the extra capacity to restore two trains per hour from Winsford to Liverpool Lime Street.

Whatever the solution, if NPR is to be delivered, we need to address the capacity issues on the west coast main line between Crewe and Warrington. I frankly do not envy the Minister, or the Minister for Rail in the other place, because they have been left with a complete mess by the previous Administration. I hope that the Minister will address Members’ points about a capacity plan and provide some certainty about the HS2 phase 2b hybrid Bill and whether the Government plan to bring it forward.

I hope that Members will be able work with the Minister on a solution that delivers the capacity we need and creates frequent, reliable services. That will get cars and lorries off the road and support jobs and prosperity in Mid Cheshire and beyond.