Cyclists welcome 24-mile cycleway along HS2 as West Midlands mayor aims to enable cycling and walking as “natural first choice for short journeys”

Cyclists have applauded plans for a 24-mile cycleway along HS2 along Birmingham, Solihull, Warwickshire and Coventry, to be built by repurposing HS2’s construction roads and maintenance paths, after they were announced by the West Midlands Mayor last evening.

The news for the cycleway plan was first reported by The Guardian, after the newspaper said it had seen a letter by Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, to the government-owned HS2 Ltd, in which he described it as a “no-brainer” for health, wellbeing and economic growth in the region.

Following the news, Street shared the letter, co-penned by him and Adam Tranter, the West Midlands' cycling and walking commissioner and also addressed to Mark Harper, Secretary of State for Transport, on social media platform X, formely Twitter. He wrote: “The HS cycle route is important to the region to provide safe and sustainable transport links in local communities and reduce severance for active travel modes.

“The route would also support local connectivity within Growth Zones in Birmingham East and Solihull, as well as the Investment Zone in Birmingham's Knowledge Quarter.

“HS2 must not only [be] a superb new train service but also an enabler of the shift towards low-carbon travel, enabling the Government's vision that cycling and walking is the natural first choice for short journeys. This is possible in the West Midlands; not just in cities but towns and rural areas too.”

Using a mix of construction roads, maintenance paths and local active travel schemes, it’s possible to bring huge benefits to communities along the HS2 route 🚂

I’ve written with @adamtranter to HS2 Ltd and the Government to make our intentions for this project clear ✍🏻 pic.twitter.com/QRTaQYaumW

— Andy Street (@andy4wm) February 22, 2024

The news has been described as a “win” and a “great idea” by many cyclists and active travel campaigners on social media.

> MPs ask Transport Minister to build HS2 cycleway in full

Paul Wright wrote on Twitter: “A cycle way that goes through Birmingham Airport, through Birmingham along the route (Bromford, Castle Vale, & Washwood Heath) into the city centre would be incredible and mean HS2 is benefiting the neighbourhoods along the route. Good for access to jobs & good for wellbeing.”

Katy Rodda said: “Now that will be a win! Hooking up with urban centres, yes, HS2 paying for decent link routes too? More people are likely to use part of it to get to the nearest hubs rather than the route end to end route? (And here cycle and long-distance rail planning diverges!)”

And Cheryl Law added: “This is great news! Have cycled from Balsall Common to Bham quite a few times and the options are either terrifying (fast/busy roads) or totally unsuitable (bumpy/muddy canal or dark lanes) Worst bit is the last few miles before the city centre. Terrifying.”

Stop HS2, Tour of Britain 2014 (djim on Flickr, licensed via CC BY 2.0 DEED)

It is estimated that the returns on every £1 spent for the urban Birmingham section of the HS2 cycleway is going to be between £4.7 and £14.8, and for Jenilworth and Coventry to be between £2.44 and £7.05.

Work on the path is expected to start by 2027, and while there is no current estimate on the total cost to build the route, funding is likely to come in part from city region sustainable transport settlements, which for the West Midlands will total £2.46bn, at least £250m of which will be allocated to active travel. Regional and local authorities, as well as developer and HS2 levies, levelling up and other direct funding will also contribute.

In June 2015, then cycling minister Robert Goodwill told road.cc that a cycle network would be built around HS2. He said it wouldn't be the long distance cycle track suggested by Boris Johnson but a network of routes developed from existing bridleways and footpaths.

The government later published a study which looked at the possibility of building a national cycleway along the route of the HS2 railway. However, a cover note suggested it would be down to local authorities whether anything actually got built.

The plans around the route had been left astray since then, with the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group members Ruth Cadbury and Lilian Greenwood asking then Transport Minister Andrew Stephenson in 2021 to commit to building a cycleway along the full route of HS2.

The two MPs argued that the environmental, public health and economic case for such a project is clear. They wrote: “A cycleway will help build rural cycle networks and also bring new opportunities for both domestic and international tourism.”