AUSTIN URGES TRANSPORT SECRETARY TO MAKE BLACK COUNTRY HS2 DESTINATION

Ian Austin MP has asked Transport Secretary Justine Greening to consider plans to alter the High Speed 2 line to bring it through the Black Country, a move which he believes would boost manufacturing and create jobs in the area.

The plans for the HS2 line were approved earlier this week and include expensive plans for the construction of a number of tunnels in the Home Counties, following intense lobbying from Tory MPs whose constituencies the line would pass through. Austin thinks the money would be better spent by improving transport links between Black Country manufacturers and the capital.

Ian Austin MP said:

“The Black Country has the largest concentration of manufacturing companies anywhere in Europe, so bringing the trains through Birmingham would link our areas up with the High Speed network, boost manufacturing and bring much-needed investment to the area – and it would cost much less than the new tunnels the government is planning to build to allay concerns about farms and fields in the Home Counties”