Growth Track 360 renews calls for “visionary investments” to transform the region’s rail network
Growth Track 360 has renewed its calls for “visionary investments” to transform the region’s rail network.
Following local elections held on 5 May, business and local authority leaders from North Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire West and Chester in the Growth Track 360 partnership have renewed their call for visionary investments to transform the region’s rail network.
In the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday 10 May a new Transport Bill setting up Great British Railways was announced.
Growth Track 360 says it will be working with Senedd Members and Members of the UK Parliament from all parties to secure its immediate objectives: –
- Transformation of the Wrexham-Bidston line to permit direct running of metro frequency trains from Wales into Liverpool city centre, along with a new station at Deeside Industrial Park
- Complete modernisation of Chester station as the gateway for tourism and commerce to Cheshire and North Wales
- Electrification of the North Wales Main Line to Crewe and Warrington, allowing HS2 trains to run directly from London and Birmingham to Chester and beyond.
As an early step in this programme of improvements, Growth Track 360 will support a renewed bid by Flintshire Council to the UK Levelling Up Fund for development of Deeside Industrial Park station and track improvements to the Wrexham-Bidston line at the Padeswood cement terminal.
Growth Track 360 has commissioned a series of conceptual artworks to assist the public in visualising the proposed improvements, the first has which has now been published.
The works are being produced by Nataliia Marchuk, a Ukrainian Fine Arts undergraduate at the University of Chester. The first of these works – which accompanies this news release – shows an HS2 train passing Conwy Castle on an electrified North Wales Main Line.
Growth Track 360 Chair and Leader of Cheshire West & Chester Council, Councillor Louise Gittins, said: “With the local elections settled and new railway legislation about to be launched by the UK Government, now is the time to bring forward the investment programme we need to support a long-term and irreversible improvement to the economic fortunes of our cross-border region.
“We stand ready to work with the UK Department for Transport, the Welsh Government, Transport for Wales, Network Rail and other agencies to bring about such a transformation.”
Growth Track 360 Business Representative, Ashley Rogers, Chief Executive of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council, said:
“The cross-border North Wales Mersey Dee region is a powerhouse of modern industry as well as one of the UK’s most magnetic regions for tourism thanks to our outstanding coastline, countryside and world class attractions.
“As we strive for a sustainable, Net Zero Carbon future along with economic recovery from the pandemic, it is critical for the UK Government to release the funds necessary to accelerate the long overdue investment programme for our region’s rail infrastructure network.”
Growth Track 360 is a public-private partnership established in 2016 uniting North Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire West and Chester. Its goal is improving cross-border transport connectivity with specific emphasis on rail.
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