Treasury plans to mothball the eastern leg completely are understood to have been spiked after furious Tory MPs representing “red wall” seats along the route baulked at the prospect –
first revealed in The Independent earlier this month.
Instead, trains heading south will now leave Leeds via a new purpose-built HS2 line but will transfer to existing tracks in the village of Clayton on the border of the West and South Yorkshire counties. From there, they will run at slow speeds for at least 60 miles before possibly joining with a new line at the East Midlands Parkway station.
A purpose-built hub in the Nottinghamshire village of Toton – which would have connected Derby and Nottingham to HS2 – will be dropped altogether.