Local business leaders in North Staffordshire have called on the government to build a station in the area that would be served by the HS2 line when it is eventually built.
Plans for the second phase of the £32 billion high speed railway track were unveiled last week, with the proposals including a line that would run through parts of Staffordshire on its way to Crewe in south Cheshire.
According to local politicians and business leaders, the project would see Staffordshire's rural areas suffer from the laying of the track without gaining any direct benefit - an issue they argue could be rectified by the inclusion of a new station.
"I don't think you can get the economic benefits with the spur off at Crewe as you would with a hub station in North Staffordshire itself," Jane Gratton from the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce told the Sunday Politics show in the West Midlands.
"Our business case shows there are real economic benefits and transport benefits [to having a station in North Staffordshire]."
While the project to link Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester is not due to be completed until 2032, much has already been made of the economic benefits that HS2 will bring to the north of England.
And with the cities expecting their economies to grow as the possibilities presented by the line are realised, it is unsurprising to see other areas looking to take advantage of the initiative.
Indeed, with office space and commercial property markets in the north of the country likely to experience higher activity as HS2 becomes a reality, other locations along the planned route could soon start looking at ways they could benefit too.
Yet given that it will be years until these changes start to have a visible effect, investing in such markets now could be an effective strategy for getting ahead of the game.
Whatever happens with the plans between now and their eventual implementation, it appears that there is a strong appetite for taking advantage of the resources that HS2 has to offer.