Crewe and Nantwich Labour MP seems to live his life in a delusionary state of mind.
First he waxed lyrical about how Crewe town centre was making an amazing recovery.......when in reality it is teetering on the edge of total extinction because of the deliberate actions of himself and his Labour comrades on Cheshire East and Crewe Town Council.

Now he welcomes a proposed new rail line from Birmingham to Manchester, via Crewe.
What he doesn't mention is that it won't even start to be built for TWENTY YEARS.
And could well be cancelled by whichever party is in Government in 2046 !!!!

"Of all the links that the north of England needs for improved connectivity with the rest of the nation, Birmingham to Manchester is the most critical. The land needed as far as Crewe is already reserved. Yet instead of going ahead with something that has been years in the planning, the project is being put on hold for at least two decades.

I’ve seen some cans kicked down the road or into the long grass in my time, notably on airport expansion, but this announcement trumps them all. Around the middle of the century, we’ll take another look at the Birmingham to Manchester line that everyone agrees is desperately needed right now. Yes: the 2050 from Manchester Piccadilly is not a train leaving at 10 to nine in the evening, but the possible year a fast line to Birmingham might begin."

https://crewe.nub.news/news/local-news/crewe-mp-welcomes-proposed-new-birmingham-to-manchester-rail-link-284814#comments
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/northern-powerhouse-rail-birmingham-manchester-labour-b2900167.html

If you're a pensioner then not in our life time.🥺😂😂😂

When? Will it happen,passed rail projects have never appeared.

Next day update:

The civil service has a policy of releasing things to the press and waiting a day to put it online for the public (otherwise we wouldn't need the press....).

I've just found what the offical releases said, there are two. First is the main one which only talks about Yorkshire and a few throw away comments about Liverpool to Manchester. The second was a bit too much for the nationals but is about the north west. Whilst making promises for Liverpool- Warrington- Manchester it doesn't give a date other than "in the 2030s". Then down at the bottom, almost as a PS is West Midlands to Crewe. What they promise is a feasiblity study of something that is not a restart of HS2, might be the Burnham/Street idea, might be all of the various ideas thrown in by people who weren't asked and haven't got the funding. Anyway, it will keep civil servants in London in work for a few years. Any actual building will be "incremental" on the Liverpool-Manchester project - see above for that date. So nothing likely to be visible at Crewe for 15 years or so. The solid bit of good news is that land bought for HS2 will not be sold off whilst we wait.

I've also seen Naismiths blog about all this, updated yesterday. He genuinely believes that some signficant step has been made which raises the possiblity that some London based civl servant has missed something out of a press release about the north. If so he has chance to enlighten us.

Meanwhile Crewe station is falling apart around us. Shrubs growing out of masonry. Roof held up by scaffolding. Electrics and heating failing. And new trains becoming a problem because they are too long for the old platform they were supposed to use. A major project needs funding now for the present, not for what may or may not happen in 15 years time.

We're ranting on about Northern powerhouse rail (NPR) and in a way I feel sorry for the people this is going to affect.
At present Labour are in power but,
I cannot see them winning the next Election.
What does this mean,
I'll tell you,
it means whoever wins the next Election will scrap Northern powerhouse rail (NPR) why you ask is because it wasn't their idea,
Same as Rishi sunak did.
And again who suffers the public, THE TAX PAYERS.
Governments and council don't care about working class people once they have your vote they do as they please.
I think myself Connor Naismith lives in Cuckoo land.
And from what I've been reading I think he should hang his coat up in shame and close the door on the way out.
Steve Bratt from the comments and interesting information you put your the man for the job.👍

I wouldn't know Connor Naismith if I saw him to ask him questions about the NPR .
If you have any idea where he might be please let us know.😂😂

I don't know which is lamest - the article or Naismith's comment! It starts by saying "According to the BBC, ministers are expected to confirm proposals for new and improved connections as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) on Wednesday 14 January." It wasn't published until half way through Wednesday and the DfT statement had already been released, presumably under embargo, on Tuesday so every national news agency had already said that the line for Crewe had been put back to about 15 years after Naismith loses his seat - if it is ever built. The proposal is a load of stuff in Yorkshire, some of which is an old Conservative trick of reannouncing what's already happening. The Liverpool-Manchester NPR line is kicked back until after the next election, and if not cancelled won't happen until the 2030s - and the new Lichfield- Crewe - North Cheshire line is even further behind that. Naismith has not been hoodwinked by Burnham, because Burnham's plan has been screwed as well. The difference is that Burnham understood what was proposed where as Naismith doesn't. Crewe needs the Burnham plan because it fills in the gap of the high speed route to LONDON , the Birmingham side connection makes little difference to Crewe and the extra Manchester connection is only realy useful if there are through trains across to Yorkshire. Naismith is also clueless about the original HS2 proposals' service depots near the Verdin Arms on Midldewich Road which would have created around 1000 jobs - none of which will now happen.

CEC weren't hoodwinked by Burnham either, the roads engineers that dominate that department were never really interested. And Chester appears to be getting even less than what Sunak announced in 2023.

Just listening to Rachel Reeves on the Telly,
Not one mention about Crewe and the new Railway infrastructure.
Rachel Reeves has hit the BUFFERS yet again..

Sorry Mr Naismith but you like Cec have been hoodwinked by Burnham/Rotherham into supporting Nph and now been binned.
Not one single mention of Crewe,its Warrington the beneficiarys.
Much the same with Devolution,Warrington and maybe Chester will benefit.