Campaigners in Liverpool are calling on the Government to connect Merseyside to the proposed High Speed 2 railway.

Liverpool City Council has joined forces with public transport operator Merseytravel, the region's Local Enterprise Partnership and business group 20 Miles More to push for the rail link to reach their conurbation. They launched a 'High Speed Rail – Linking Liverpool' campaign on Tuesday.

“High speed rail would bring enormous benefits to the city region – an £8.3Bn boost to our economy, more jobs and more visitors,” said Liverpool city region combined authority chairman Phil Davies. “Delivering full high speed rail connectivity into Liverpool city centre is vital not just for the city itself but for the whole region and beyond.”

The region's Local Enterprise Partnership chair Robert Hough added: “There is much talk about developing a northern economic powerhouse. This cannot happen without Liverpool being fully connected. It is essential that we invest in infrastructure such as high speed rail to achieve a rebalancing of our economy.”

As well as providing faster connectivity to the region, campaigners says that bringing High Speed 2 to Liverpool would increase capacity for freight movements on the railways.

Campaigners are currently hitting the streets of Liverpool asking local people to sign a pledge to support the city's high speed rail ambitions.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said that a preferred network for phase two of High Speed 2 was already in place, but added: “It is good news that people want the project to come to them.”

(Photo: HS2)

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