A new transport corridor to connect the HS2 high speed railway to Derby may scupper the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust’s plans to reopen the Derby Canal, unless a more expensive option for the link is chosen

A new transport corridor to connect the HS2 high speed railway to Derby may scupper the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust’s plans to reopen the Derby Canal, unless a more expensive option for the link is chosen.

If and when HS2 Phase 2 is built, it will have a ‘hub’ station at Toton, between Nottingham and Derby – with links proposed to both cities. But while a “mass transit” bus lane or tram line to Derby could be built along the A52 main road, a new study has indicated that a cheaper option would be for it to use the former canal route – and concludes that this would be “the best option”. This has not gone down well with either the Canal Trust or Erewash council planners, who say that it “has the potential to harm a number of long-term planning objectives” – losing green belt, damaging communities and precluding reopening this length of canal including the recently restored Borrowash Lock.

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