Senior Tory says Shapps privately assured him £3bn HS2 branch will be scrapped

theguardian.com:

Grant Shapps has privately promised to scrap a controversial £3bn branch of the HS2 train line that carves through the constituency of the 1922 Committee chair, Sir Graham Brady, and two other Tory MPs, the Guardian understands.

The link, known as the Golborne spur, would connect the main Crewe-Manchester HS2 line to the west coast mainline just south of Wigan.

Brady, the Tory MP for Altrincham and Sale West, which would be affected by the spur, wrote to a constituent last week saying Shapps had given him “categorical verbal assurances” that it would be removed from the HS2 bill currently going through parliament.

The link has been the subject of heated lobbying by MPs in the Warrington, Wigan and Trafford areas where their constituencies would be affected. But the private assurances from Shapps to Brady, who runs the powerful 1922 Committee of backbenchers, may raise questions about why the transport secretary has not made public any decision.

The government had promised in its integrated rail review to consider alternatives to the spur, which would have joined HS2 to the west coast mainline and cut the journey time to Glasgow. However, the HS2 bill published in February included plans to keep it, much to the dismay of MPs in the area.

Despite the appearance of the Golborne link in legislation, Brady told his constituent it would soon be removed from the bill by the Department for Transport, claiming it was only in there to prevent delays in its publication.

In his letter, Brady said: “I have received categorical, verbal assurances from the secretary of state that the government will table an amendment as part of the second reading of the bill. This will remove the Golborne spur from the legislation. This is expected to take