The Liberal Democrat candidate for Carlisle has said he would like to see trains from Carlisle to Newcastle take just 45 minutes.

Trains from Carlisle to Newcastle can take up to one hour and 40 minutes but Cllr Brian Wernham has called for journey times of just 45 minutes between Carlisle and Newcastle and Carlisle and Whitehaven.

Cllr Wernham said that shorter journey times would take cars off the road and be beneficial to the region’s economy.

His plans would see a fast train running alongside a stopper service calling at the smaller stations like Brampton and Haydon Bridge.

His call comes on the same day that the prime minister announced that the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 would be scrapped and that the £36 billion would be spent on key transport infrastructure projects across the north and the midlands.

In his speech at the Conservative party conference on Wednesday, October 4, Rishi Sunak announced that the “Energy Coast” line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow would be ‘upgraded’.

The upgrade would improve capacity and journey times on the line, enabling trains every 30 minutes between Carlisle, Workington, and Whitehaven according to the government.

“I was initially supportive of HS2,” said Cllr Wernham, “but a decade of mismanagement from the government and concentrating entirely on the south has meant we’re essentially going to get a very expensive train set running from Birmingham to London.

“It won’t take any of the pressure off existing lines unless you’re going from Curzon Street to West London – it’s an incredibly expensive white elephant.

“Rishi Sunak is trying to salvage the wreckage of HS2 but we’re going to have spent billions of pounds for a worse service.

“Instead, at one thousandth of the cost, we could have fast trains taking 45 minutes between Newcastle and Carlisle and Carlisle and Whitehaven which would take cars off the road and open up Carlisle to surrounding areas.

“I talk to people all across the city about how they haven’t been able to access medical appointments in Newcastle, Hexham and Whitehaven as its just not feasible at the moment.”

Carlisle’s Conservative MP, John Stevenson said that idea ‘would be nice’ but that plans must be ‘realistic’ and ‘achievable.’