Two directly elected mayors have set up a new group aimed at exploring ways to improve rail links between the West Midlands and North West.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and his counterpart in Greater Manchester Andy Burnham have convened a private sector group to look at options to tackle what they called "one of the most congested and unreliable routes" in the UK.
The group is chaired by infrastructure expert and former HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins.
The move to establish the group follows on from the Prime Minister's pledge to work with Mayor Street to enhance connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester after the decision was taken to scrap HS2 north of Handsacre, near Rugeley in Staffordshire.
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Phases 2a and 2b of the high-speed rail line were due to connect Birmingham with Crewe, Manchester Airport and Manchester city centre but these were cancelled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party Conference in October.
The mayors' private sector work, which will be led by global engineering firm Arup with input from other businesses, will focus on the stretch of rail between Handsacre and Manchester Airport.
The project will include re-examining the cost, capacity and economic uplift of changes to the rail route, helping to identify packages of potential interventions and possible private sector funding models and solutions.
The aim is for the first stage of the work to be completed by March, with the final report due to be lodged with the Government in the summer. The group will be meeting with ministers soon to set out its plans.
