The announcement today that the the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will support the estimated £31b London Cross Rail 2 project has angered politicians in the region.

Coming just days after Grayling’s comments about the non electrification of the Trans Pennine Route between Liverpool Manchester Leeds and Hull, The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said the announcement will cause widespread anger across the North of England adding that with every day that passes the promise of the Northern Powerhouse becomes ever more distant.

He added that people in the region have had to put up with “sub-standard” rail services for decades and would “simply not accept” that spending billions more on transport in London was the “highest priority”.

An analysis by the independent think-tank IPPR North found the North of England would have got £59bn more over the last decade, had it received the same infrastructure spending per person as London.

The Government has said that it will support the railway line which would link the suburban railway network from Wimbledon to Tottenham Hale via a new tunnel under London,  as long as private sector pays half construction cost.

Leader of Manchester City Council Sir Richard Leese said the decision suggests that the government is abandoning rebalancing the economy but that Manchester and the rest of the North was not going to sit back and let that happen while the Labour MP for Withington Jeff Smith said that backing  Crossrail 2 while cancelling electrification of Leeds/Mcr line is unjustifiable.

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