Rural West ward councillors Ian Gillies and Chris Steward are challenging railway bureaucracy to have removed from an options paper a proposal for a new railway stop outside of Rufforth, as part of an alternative HS2 Phase Two route to Scotland which could see the new line to run north through the Vale of York.
Cllr. Gillies said “As part of the latest HS2 papers released last week the authors included an option which, as part of a Phase Two programme to extend the line into Scotland, could join Phase Two in the Garforth area and either continue north through the Vale of York to Northallerton or alternately pass close to York following the East coast Main Line northwards.
“The papers note that a parkway station could be built on either of those routes, at the point where the routes cross the A59, the A64 and the York to Harrogate railway, or close to the York ring road in Rural West Ward.
“We don’t expect this will actually happen as the preferred route to Scotland is via the west coast, and of course we are talking 30 years in the future. However these proposals are unacceptable and we want references to a parkway station in Rural West Ward out of the HS2 papers. Despite repeated requests, these they are still there in the new papers which were released just last week.
“We need to remove these options from the record soon to avoid problems later on. We have asked officers to update us on the status of this route and if it is unlikely to be chosen to have it removed from all current and future HS2 papers and both Cllr. Steward and I will be monitoring this situation to make sure this happens sooner rather than later.”