Meadowhall station could bring 5,000 high speed rail jobs

UP to 5,000 jobs could be created under plans to bring 225mph  trains to South Yorkshire.

A new railway station would be built at Meadowhall under proposals to extend the High Speed Rail network northwards from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester.

Journey times to London from the new station would be cut to just 69 minutes under the £16bn plans, with the journey time to Heathrow cut to 89 minutes.

The Meadowhall station would be part of a network of five new stations — one in Leeds and with a Midlands hub at Toton between Nottingham and Derby on the north-east section of the route and two new stations in Manchester and at Manchester airport in the north-west.

Trains would connect Meadowhall to Rotherham, Barnsley and beyond to Wakefield, Doncaster, Scunthorpe

and stations to Leeds and Manchester.

It is estimated that the Meadowhall station would provide5,000 jobs and support 400 new houses.

Announcing the Government’s intitial preferences for Phase Two of the High Speed Rail Project today, The Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin,  said: “While the first phase of HS2, between London and the West Midlands, will have an instant effect on journey times from the Midlands to the south of England, Phase Two will unlock the vast potential of HS2 to transform the whole of Great Britain.”

Chancellor George Osbourne commented: "I think it is the engine for growth in the north and the midlands"

A final route for phase two is expected to be chosen by the end of 2014 and the completion date is scheduled for 2032/33. Phase 1 links Birmingham and London.

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The route through South Yorkshire.

Click here for a video fly-through of the route from London to Leeds.

Official HS" website