Pop guru and train buff Pete Waterman told tourism chiefs about his enthusiasm for the £50bn HS2 high speed rail project at a conference in Chester.

The hit-maker, who produced the likes of Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, addressed an audience of movers and shakers at the tourism event held at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Hoole.

HS2 supporters like Mr Waterman argue 250mph trains will ‘slash’ journey times between the capital and the north, with the first phase linking London to Birmingham and a later phase extending to Manchester and Leeds.

Mr Waterman OBE, who lives in Daresbury and says there is “no bigger railway fan than me”, said HS2 would be accessible to the masses.

He said: “Everybody is going ‘This will be an expensive railway just for business’. There are, just on HS2, every hour, 10,000 seats. And HS2 will be running 17 hours a day. We don’t have to be geniuses to understand that to keep those trains full there will be lots of deals to be had.”

He added: “For the first time we have been incredibly successful as an area in Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Warrington in staking our claim to government that this is the key to the prosperity of the whole of the North West. Camden is not a gateway to the North West, actually Crewe is the gateway to the North West.

“It opens up the economy for the first time and all those of you who have travelled through Crewe recently will be sighing with relief that we’re going to get a new station. We need people to be able to travel quicker, cheaper, Virgin do some great deals on pricing. The argument it’s too expensive doesn’t always wash.

“Five years ago when I saw the first map for HS2 and it missed Crewe by 21km, I thought ‘My God, this is the end of the North West’, which is why I joined the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and why I’ve been working with the DFT (Department for Transport) and joined the treasury team to make sure that they understood this is the second biggest part of our economy and it’s still the best and most under-performed.

“London is over-performing, it’s overheating. We can add to that now because we will only be literally under the hour away from London and we have a lot to offer. We are a great part of the world. We’ve got great attractions and with travel that much easier, boy, are we going to add to that economy. We know we have a product. We know we have an area that is superb. We’ve got everything – we’ve got music, we’ve got football, we’ve got castles, we’ve got water, we’ve got fabulous people, we’ve got fabulous fish and chips and you’ve got kiss me quick hats as well.”

Opponents argue HS2 will be built at the expense of the existing infrastructure, a claim which Mr Waterman describes as “nonsense”, pointing out that £60bn is already going into the current railway network.

“HS2 isn’t touching the national railway budget at all,” Mr Waterman told The Chronicle afterwards. “The budget for HS2 is only for HS2. It doesn’t include any of the standard network.”

As an example, he said £3.2bn was being spent on the ‘Northern Hub’, improving the service between Leeds and Liverpool, with a second phase enhancing the Manchester and Liverpool route via Warrington.

He added: “The electrification of the Crewe to Chester, so as Crewe is improved with HS2, so your link with Chester all the way through to Holyhead will become of major importance.”