Scrapped HS2 line: 'Crewe has been forgotten'

One of the biggest casualties of the canned northern HS2 project is Crewe - a town promised so much but which now looks set to have little delivered. The BBC visited the original railway town to see how people were reacting to Rishi Sunak's announcement earlier this week.

Carol Mellor huddles under the entrance of Crewe's empty Dorothy Perkins as the rain drizzles down.

She has lived in the town for 50 years. Like many of her generation, her father drove trains that passed through Crewe, one of the main stations on the Grand Junction Railway.

The 71-year-old smiles as she reminisces of the times he would tell her, when she was a little girl, how he drove the Queen to London - twice.

"The railway was what kept this town running. It's a complete waste of money if they pull HS2 now," Mrs Mellor says.

It's the end of the line for the high speed rail project in Crewe, once the world's greatest railway workshop and to this day, a major junction on the West Coast Mainline.

After the northern leg of the multi-billion pound project was culled by the prime minister in Manchester this week, the hopes of thousands of HS2 jobs, brighter prospects for Crewe's younger generation and thousands of new homes lay in tatters.

It's a bitter pill to swallow for the townsfolk, who have seen so many businesses shut up shop and leave.

Wilko, in the Market Shopping Centre, was the last one to go a few weeks ago.

"It's gone a mess, there is nothing here," Mrs Mellor says, gesturing at the row of empty units.

"Crewe has been forgotten."

The HS2 announcement, after weeks of speculation, left Cheshire's business and political leaders reeling.

Paul Colman, chief executive of the South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce, described it as an "utter disgrace", while Crewe and Nantwich's Conservative MP, Dr Kieran Mullan, spoke of his "extreme disappointment" the line would stop north of Birmingham.

"Delivering the full route would have placed Crewe at the heart of the new network and I think would have been transformative for our local economy," he said in a statement.

Tony Axford, who moved to Crewe from Coventry 30 years ago, says people feel forgotten by the government, or what he describes as a "collection of posh people down South".

"It was sold as a piece of infrastructure, so it's not just about people being transported it's about goods," he says.

He talks about the M6 through Staffordshire and the Black Country, still congested despite the M6 Toll which was supposed to alleviate it. Surely HS2 would have greatly impacted that?

His wife Coleen says she came to Crewe in 1995 from Scotland for better job opportunities

She lived in Edinburgh during the time Margaret Thatcher brought in Poll Tax.

The new charge was to replace the council rates and was introduced in Scotland first. Rich and poor were charged the same, provoking a storm of anger and demonstrations and non-payment.

The rail connections in Crewe were one of the main draws for the couple.

"It's got a railway identity...it's so easy to get to Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow," Mrs Axford says.

The scrapping of the line is "a serious disappointment", she adds.

Husband and wife Rohit and Reshma moved from India a year ago.

Adjusting to life as new parents, Reshma is also an international university student and Rohit works in a factory.

The people of Crewe have been very friendly, but finding work was difficult at first. Something that HS2 might have made a little easier in future.

"If the government put some more attention on Crewe I think it'd be better...if the low income group had better jobs, they'd settle here," Reshma says.

For Mia Watson, a 20-year-old volunteer in one of the town centre's many charity shops, a priority is sorting out the issues affecting the rail network today, rather than one in the future.

This year has seen multiple train strikes, causing delays and cancellations across the country.

Regulated rail fares in England and Wales rose by up to 5.9% with many campaigners calling for reforms due to unreliable services.

"What would be better [than HS2] is investing in the current railways and making them run better," Miss Watson says.

Tim Osbourne, originally from London, agrees that current services need looking at first.

"It is like building an extension on a house that is subsiding," he says, adding that he was against the scheme to start with due to environmental concerns.

The Department for Transport insists Crewe will continue to be an important junction on the West Coast Mainline and they will focus on improving the station for the conventional network.

But HS2 wasn't simply a case of the town getting a fancy new trainline and station, it was supposed to be its long-awaited resurrection.

Turan Savas runs a fish and chip shop near the station. He's been living in Crewe for 20 years, staying in the town because he's a self confessed railway enthusiast.

"Crewe is one of the stepping stones for the railway, I don't know why they changed the plan," Mr Savas says, who desperately wants the legacy of the railways there to continue.

HS2, with its jobs, prospects and better connections, could have been something Crewe's younger generation would have aimed for, says Miss Watson.

The town effectively closes down at 17:00 BST when the remaining shops shut.

"There is nothing else for young people to do so they tend to just do drugs, drink and vandalise [the empty shop fronts]".

In the seven years she has lived here, she has noticed decline, although the bus station is undergoing a much needed transformation.

There used to be a McDonalds in the town centre where her friends would gather, but that shut in 2018 after 34 years.

It's not what she expected from a town so central to England's rail network.

"It did used to be quite bustling and a centre of economy," she says.

"If HS2 was going to come anywhere, surely it would be Crewe?"

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