The Government have published their Integrated Rail Plan and have confirmed that the vital Eastern Leg of the HS2 project will be scrapped entirely and that a new trans-Pennine line between Manchester and Leeds, a key element of Northern Powerhouse Rail, will also not be built with a stop in Bradford
Plans to build an underground station to accomodate the new HS2 into Manchester Piccadilly have been abandoned with the Government prefering anenlarged (6-platform) surface station
These say the proposals,can meet these requirements at substantially lower cost and
construction impact than underground alternatives.
Writing ahead of the announcement in the Yorkshire Post the Prime Minister insisted that his government’s Integrated Rail Plan will deliver the levelling-up that was promised.
In the House of Commons Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced that he is investing £23b in Northern Powerhouse rail while confirming that the HS2 Eastern leg thru to Leeds will not happen but three high speed linesf rom Crewe to Manchester, Warrington to Manchester and Birmingham to the East Midlands will go ahead
The Government said that the proposals for Northern Powerhouse Rail will connect Leeds and Manchester in 33 minutes, down from 55 minutes now.
HS2 East will run direct from central Nottingham to Birmingham in 26 minutes, down from 1 hour 14 minutes now, and from central Nottingham to London in 57 minutes. HS2 will also run from London to Sheffield in 1 hour 27 minutes while HS2 West will run from London to Manchester in 1 hour 11 minutes and from Birmingham to Manchester in 41-51 minutes, compared to 86 minutes today.
Three new high-speed lines, covering 110 miles will complete HS2 from Crewe to Manchester, with new stations at Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly.
There will be a new high-speed line between Birmingham and East Midlands Parkway. Trains will continue to central Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield on an upgraded and electrified Midland Main Line.
There will be a new high-speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Marsden in Yorkshireas in the first of the options originally put forward by Transport for the North in 2019 and there will be a study to look at the best way to take HS2 trains to Leeds, including capacity at Leeds Station.
However Oldham MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon in reply said:
“What we have been given today is a Great Train Robbery” and this is a betrayal of trust for the people of the North of England and the Midlands”
He added:
(Boris Johnson) promised HS2 to Leeds, he promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, he promised that the North would not be forgotten.But he hasn’t just forgotten us, he’s completely sold us out.”
He added: “Let’s be clear – the scaling back of Northern Powerhouse Rail coupled with the scrapping of the Eastern leg of HS2 is a massive blow for our regions”.
The plan also announced the complete electrification of the Midland Main Line from London to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield and a programme of rapid upgrades to the East Coast Main Line to the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East. Journey times will be up to 25 minutes faster than now.
There will be full electrification and upgrade of the Transpennine Main Line between Manchester, Leeds and York as part of delivering the first phase of NPR, installing full digital signalling, with longer sections of three and four-tracking to allow fast trains to overtake stopping services, and increase through passenger services by 20%. An additional £625m in new funding has been confirmed today to progress the Transpennine
Matthew Fell, CBI Chief Policy Director, said:
“High quality infrastructure is fundamental to rising living standards and levelling up the country.
“The Integrated Rail Plan is a significant investment that will go some way towards modernising our ageing rail networks and can be delivered at pace.
“But businesses across the Midlands and Northern England will be justifiably disappointed to see the goalposts have moved at the eleventh hour, and concerned that some of the areas most sorely in need of development will lose out as a result of the scaled back plans.”
Chris Fletcher, Policy Director at the Chamber, said: “After such a prolonged and delayed build up we were really expecting a lot more from the Integrated Rail Plan around brand-new lines, investment and capacity where they are needed most, linking the major economic centres across the north and opening access to the Midlands and beyond.
“The original aim of previous schemes and strategies such as the Northern Powerhouse, was to add in vital extra rail capacity that would allow the unlocking of labour markets across the north to allow the easier movement of people to access a wider range of job opportunities. Extra capacity is also needed for freight, which could in turn help take more trucks off the roads. We were expecting news that would deliver this capacity and finally deliver a public transport system that works for everyone. This would have given a genuine boost to the economy and help deliver what, we think, government means by levelling up. It would have also made a significant impact on net-zero targets by allowing the removal of thousands of car journeys by giving people a genuine alternative where currently one does not exist.
“Instead, we have a patchwork quilt of upgrades that roughly costs the same, will mean greater disruption to existing users and will not deliver the capacity uplift that is needed. More trains on existing track can only result in a poorer service than at present. We have been down this route before following years of upgrades on the West Coast Mainline that went over budget, over timescale, created huge disruption for passengers and didn’t deliver the long-term improvements they needed to.
“Whilst the new high-speed lines are welcomed – they still fall way short of what is actually needed, what many were expecting and indeed the delivery of which we had been assured of by government. Upgrades are fine but will not deliver the step change we need or have needed for the past decade to unlock economic growth in the north and beyond.
“With the Levelling Up White Paper due in the next few weeks it will be intriguing to see how the watered-down rail plan will impact on the government’s much heralded strategy to level up the country. Off the evidence today there is now an even greater challenge to deliver this successfully and in effect government have made it harder for themselves to do this.”
Northern Powerhouse Partnership Director Henri Murison said:
“The Integrated Rail Plan is a huge moment for the North, and the announcement of the new line from Warrington through Manchester to Marsden, as well as the confirmation of HS2 in the west coming to Manchester and Manchester Airport, is welcome.
“However, the lack of a full new line across the Pennines will dramatically reduce the capacity and potential for rapid economic growth, in particular in the cities of Leeds and Bradford. What Northern leaders had proposed was an economically transformational vision. What we have is, as ever, second class.
“The complete failure to deliver the Eastern leg of HS2 in the North is a major blow – another review is not what the North has consistently and coherently called for. We will continue to fight for HS2 in the North, which needs to be a phased project starting with a brand new line from Leeds to Clayton, alongside the immediate electrification of the conventional line between Leeds and Sheffield.
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said:
“This Government today confirmed what is a historic betrayal of the people of the North.
“This plan will lead to a dramatic reduction in rail capacity that the HS2 Eastern leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail would have delivered, capacity that would have gone a long way to deliver the UK’s climate change commitments and hundreds of thousands of jobs on our railways and across the supply chain.
“The Government is trying to dress this up as a historic announcement, but no amount of Government spin can disguise that this is a shocking kick in the teeth for the North of England. For the Government to also wait until the vital COP26 climate talks have ended before publishing these U-Turns proves that these plans will not nearly go far enough to reduce CO2 emissions from transport.
“This plan sums up this Government’s approach to our railways: Tory austerity, cutbacks and a complete lack of ambition”
