Earlier this year, Burnham and then West Midlands Mayor Andy Street confirmed they were working with a private consortium of businesses to draw up plans to better connect the two cities.
They said they were looking at three alternatives: enhance the West Coast Main Line; bypasses at the most congested parts of the line; and a completely new line possibly following the track of the cancelled HS2 route.
Connor Naismith, the Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, has written to ministers calling for Crewe to be included in any alternative to the northern leg of HS2.
“But I’m very clear we’re not resurrecting the plans for HS2, and HS2 Limited isn’t getting any further work beyond what’s been commissioned to Euston,” Haigh told Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday.
