TSSA backs Mayors plea to Sunak over HS2

TSSA, the rail union for staff directly employed by HS2, today welcomed a letter signed by Labour leaders calling for the government to deliver the High-Speed Line project in full.  

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was invited to speak at today’s cross-party Transport for the North meeting in Leeds - a reported first and apparent ‘show of force’ amid recent reports that the government could be set to delay or dismantle the northern leg of HS2.  

Ahead of the meeting, Khan came together with 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 - to issue a joint plea to Rishi Sunak not to further derail the high-speed line. 

The move comes as Louise Haigh, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, has today written to Rishi Sunak over 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.”