A North Staffordshire MP has welcomed the announcement that the scrapping of HS2 has enabled the reopening of the Leek to Stoke line.

Karen Bradley, MP for the Staffordshire Moorlands, is chair of the Leek to Stoke project board which is all backed by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The announcement of the new line was made as part of a raft of local transport spending across the Midlands and the North, which will see money handed to a myriad of individual projects rather than being spent on a stretch of the HS2 network between Birmingham and Manchester.

The Leek to Stoke proposals are also supported by all three Stoke-on-Trent MPs.

Ms Bradley only learned this afternoon (Wednesday 4th October) that the project was being given the go-ahead.

The announcement of the new line was made as part of a raft of local transport spending across the Midlands (Nub News).

She said: "This is news to all of us, but it's fantastic news. It's not just another feasibility study, the commitment is that this will reopen to passengers and freight.

"Having chaired the board, we worked really hard to come up with a proposal, and it's fantastic to hear that the Department for Transport and the government have agreed with us – and we're going to have work starting soon to reopen the line."

As part of the Restoring Your Railway Fund, an grant of £50,000 was awarded to determine if it would be possible to reinstate services on the mothballed railway line.

After working with rail industry experts, a business case was submitted to the Department for Transport late last year.

Ms Bradley said there's no details yet about when work will begin, and she is yet to arrange meetings with senior ministers about the plans as they've only just been announced.

She said: "I'm absorbing the information just as much as everyone else.

"In the Moorlands, we haven't necessarily been able to benefit from economic growth and development that's gone into some parts of North Staffordshire because we haven't had the connectivity.

"We can't get people to and from jobs in the city, we can't get people into the Moorlands to come and spend their money and enjoy our fantastic facilities.

"This opens us up, it gives us the chance to be really open place where people can invest.

"Combine that with the canal basin work in Barnfields, and it's a really exciting time for Leek and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

"I hope people will be as thrilled by the news, as I am, and get behind us to get this working."

The proposals put forward by the project board predict the line could open within the next decade (Nub News).

The proposals initially put forward by the project board predict the line could open within the next decade.

Ms Bradley said: "The line is there – it's a case of getting it right to make sure it's up to modern standards, making sure we've got station infrastructure.

"It's going to make such a difference to the lives of people in the Moorlands. They'll be able to get to school, college, jobs.

"We're looking a 20 minute trip from Leek into Stoke – you try doing that in 20 minutes in a car at the moment!"

READ MORE: BREAKING: PM cancels "rest of HS2 project" which was due to run through Staffordshire 

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