Express & Star

Fabricant backs HS4 route

A proposed new 'M25-style' high speed rail route has been backed by a Tory MP – who has cast doubt over whether it will ever be built.

Published
Mr Fabricant is in favour of the new HS4Air route

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant is a long term opponent of the HS2 route through Staffordshire, which he describes as 'one of the most disconnected rail routes devised'.

But he is in favour of the 87-mile long HS4Air route around London, which links HS2 with Heathrow, Gatwick, the Great Western Main Line and the Channel Tunnel. It is expected to cost £10 billion.

He said the line would 'act as a sort of sticking plaster to the dysfunctional HS2 route', by connecting travellers from the Midlands to France.

“HS4 would finally give some sense to HS2," he said. "But with HS2 costs soaring – estimates now put the construction cost at £80 billion – and the northern east-west connector HS3 having priority, I doubt whether HS4 will ever be built.

"It passes through areas with some of the highest population densities in the country. The outcry and costs will be enormous.

"What a shame HS2 hadn’t been designed more sensibly in the first place.”