The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), which is the rail union for staff directly employed by the High-Speed Line project HS2, has welcomed a letter that has been signed by Labour leaders calling for the government to deliver HS2 in its entirety.
A meeting is being held today, Thursday, 28 September, in Leeds by the cross-party group Transport for the North at which London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been invited to speak. This is set to the first and apparent ‘show of force' following recent reports that the government could be planning to delay or discontinue building the northern leg of HS2.
Before the meeting, Sadiq Khan met four other Labour Mayors – Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham, West Yorkshire's Tracy Brabin, Liverpool City's Steve Rotheram, and South Yorkshire's Oliver Coppard. They came together to jointly issue a plea to Rishi Sunak that he should not further derail the high-speed line.
At the same time, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, has also written to Rishi Sunak today about the uncertainty surrounding the project.
Commenting, TSSA Interim General Secretary Peter Pendle said, “As the only rail union for staff directly employed by HS2, we've been deeply troubled to see the project – and all the vital jobs it will bring – hanging in the balance.
“We welcome Mayors from up and down the country coming together to show that abandoning this project would be ludicrous and means leaving Britain behind in the dust with a creaking transport system.
“We need the government to stop dithering and fully commit to HS2, for the sake of the British economy at the local, regional and national levels.”
