The report, Revisiting High Speed North’ argues that although major rail schemes, including the second phase of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), are important and welcomed as a long-term means of levelling up the northern economy and driving change, there are serious problems to be addressed in the North’s rail network in the next 5-10 years that cannot wait for these flagship schemes
The report recommends the construction Piccadilly Super Hub, meeting the strong desire of Manchester authorities for an east-west ‘through’ HS2 station underground at Manchester Piccadilly.
This would involve a new tunnel from Ordsall into Piccadilly from the west: infrastructure that could be used by fast trains from Chester and North Wales, Liverpool, Blackpool, Barrow and Glasgow, with services emerging eastwards and across the Pennines to Leeds/Bradford, Sheffield, Hull, York and Newcastle.
With all long-distance services removed from the problem Castlefield corridor, Manchester is presented with a ready-made Picc-Vic link that is complete with three intermediate city centre stations.
This would use the recently built Ordsall viaduct and means that a Thameslink-style main line metro can link together places such as Rochdale and Burnley with a reliable commuter rail service at last.
The report shows how to make early progress on tying together the North’s labour markets, bringing fast growing places like Leeds, Warrington and Manchester together with more challenging labour markets like Wigan, Stalybridge, Huddersfield, Bradford, Sunderland and St Helens.
The authors also recommend connecting all of the North’s towns into the network – and ensure that stations can serve as mobility hubs with connecting buses, bike hire, walk and cycle ways, provision for electric car charging and so on.
Report co-authors, Ian Wray, David Thrower and Jim Steer commented: “Simply put, the rail network in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield does not work – the North deserves better. The North will benefit from the arrival of HS2 and NPR, but these are long-term schemes that will not be delivered to the North until the 2040s. So, it is important that steps are taken in the government’s new Integrated Rail Plan, known as High Speed North, to address immediate concerns in the existing network. It’s not enough to provide fast links between the major cities of the North. It is also essential to overcome existing bottlenecks, and to tie together more distant labour market areas and towns with the centres of the major cities like Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield. Ultimately, we do need a grand design, but we need a realistic delivery programme too.”
