HS2: Where does the phase two delay leave the town of Crewe?

With news the long-awaited Birmingham to Crewe leg of high speed railway HS2 will be delayed by two years, I went to Crewe to hear how confident residents were in the project.

Sisters Rosemary Arrowsmith and Olwyn Talbot were in the town centre to run some errands.

Like many from the area, they have family links to Crewe's rail heritage as their brothers and Mrs Talbot's husband worked in the industry.

"I was looking forward to HS2 when it did arrive here," said Mrs Talbot.

"I keep thinking that they'd keep putting it back and putting it back. Makes you wonder if it will go ahead," her sister added.

"We need something to get Crewe back on the map."

Mrs Talbot said she thought HS2 would bring a new lease of life to the town, especially given the falling number of shops in the town centre.

In August 2022, Cheshire East Council and its partners announced a drive to improve the town centre, a vision which included leisure uses, better facilities and a higher quality environment. It was felt Crewe was well placed to support this with the arrival of HS2 and the hub station.

Dorothy Parkes comes into the centre three times each week to meet friends for a coffee. She has noticed the number of shops decline.

The HS2 delay has left her disappointed.

"I thought it'd bring more jobs into Crewe, especially for the younger people," she says.

"I think down south get everything as usual and people up north, they get nothing at all."

Crewe is the town it is today because of the railways.

It grew after a station was built to connect the Liverpool and Manchester railways along with the London and Birmingham railways in 1837.

Three years later, Crewe Works opened and employed 20,000 people at its height. More than 8,000 locomotives were built in the town.

But, after a decline in the industry in recent years, there were positive signs as a contract to build the new trains for HS2 was awarded in 2021 and meant some of the work would take place in Crewe.

On Memorial Square, retired couple Jane and Peter Tucker sat on a bench and said the railways were always important to them and their families.

Mrs Tucker spent the last 15 years of her working life in the industry while Mr Tucker's father was employed at Crewe Works for 50 years.

The town missing out on hosting the headquarters of Great British Railways was also a disappointment to them.

"It's time somebody got themselves down here and had a look at Crewe," said Mrs Tucker.

"Has anybody been down to have a look before they made all these decisions? I shouldn't think so, no."

Taxi driver Mr Samad has carried passengers in the town for 18 years and told me plenty have talked about HS2 in recent months.

But he said there were "no signs of anything happening in Crewe".

"If you go to Wolverhampton, there's a big sign for HS2. We haven't seen any sign of HS2 coming."

But others in the town said the scheme should be scrapped.

One man cited environmental concerns to me while a woman said she thought HS2 was "terrible."

"I just think it's a lot of money when they could improve the services we've got now," she said.

For the business community, there is a lot riding on HS2.

"It's something we've needed for a long time," said Paul Colman from the South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce.

"This decision [to delay] makes it difficult for businesses to plan for the future. [It] has really put businesses on the back foot in terms of what their plans could be for the future."

He added it was not just Crewe which would be affected.

"It's the wider economy as well of places like Nantwich, Sandbach, Alsager and around south Cheshire so it won't just be Crewe feeling these effects but other places around the North West."

When he announced the delay to HS2, transport secretary Mark Harper said the government was "committed" to the line linking London, the Midlands and North of England.

But will HS2 get back on track or could it, as some fear, go off the rails completely? That's the question many here in Crewe were left wondering.

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