Long-awaited announcement
It was reported on 13 January that the government had given their backing to long-awaited plans for improvements to railways across the north of England. They have pledged to reverse ‘years of chronic underinvestment’ by spending up to £45bn on building Northern Powerhouse Rail.
The first step will involve working up a detailed three-stage plan to connect cities from Liverpool to Newcastle with a £1bn price tag for this work. It is said that the planned improvements will meet most of the demands of northern leaders, through the development of a number of long-term projects.
However, given the Treasury have imposed a £45bn cap as it seeks to avoid the huge overspend that has blighted the construction of HS2, Northern mayors may have to raise local funding to pay for some parts of the scheme.
Northern Powerhouse Rail
It is now over 10 years since the idea of Northern Powerhouse Rail, a high-speed line across the Pennines between some of the biggest cities of northern England, was first mooted. The term was coined by Chancellor George Osborne back in 2014 in a speech in Manchester. In the ensuing 12 years nothing has come of the idea. However, with this new pledge from the government, perhaps it is time to consider just what northern powerhouse rail could look like.
Transport for the North have said that Northern Powerhouse Rail will be a new network for the north of England for the 21st century, and will increase rail capacity and improve journey times. The new system will include some new railway lines and also older lines that will be upgraded, all of which will constitute the biggest transport investment in the North since the industrial revolution and passenger railways were established 200 years ago. We will see two major improvements to rail transport across the north of England. Firstly, there will be more trains per hour between the major cities of the region. Secondly, journey times will improve significantly. For example, Leeds to Liverpool will be down to about an hour (at present and hour and a half), and Newcastle to Manchester to about an hour and a half (at present two and a half hours).
It is envisaged that this will help stimulate the northern economy while also helping to take traffic off the overcrowded M62 and helping the country reach its target of getting down to Net Zero carbon by 2050.
The stages of the plan
There are three stages to the plan. As already mentioned, the first stage is to work up a detailed plan of how the railway will be built.
The second stage will involve building a new line connecting Liverpool and Manchester. The route from Liverpool will go via a new station at Warrington and also connect with Manchester Airport. In doing so it will follow part of the routes planned for HS2 and so help to allow a future high speed link to Birmingham.
The third stage will take the high-speed rail line over the Pennines into Yorkshire resulting in better links between Manchester and Bradford, Leeds, York, Hull and Sheffield. A much-needed new station will be built at Bradford and the link to York will then be extended by further improvements on the line north to Newcastle.
It is envisaged that work will start in the 2030s with a completion date of 2045 at the earliest. Any extension to the line through a high-speed rail link between Manchester and Birmingham would only be considered after that time.
Northern growth strategy
On the 14th of January the government also announced development of the northern growth strategy in conjunction with Northern Powerhouse Rail.
The north is, of course, the birthplace of the railway with the first two passenger lines in the world being between Stockton and Darlington in 1825, and Manchester to Liverpool in 1830. Generally the north has a wonderful heritage of innovation and technical excellence. The growth strategy is based on building upon that heritage and helping the north to move on from deindustrialisation, which took place in the second half of the 20th century.
It is also argued that many of the northern cities have seen a recent renaissance with increases in city centre populations and becoming centres of new technologies and it is envisaged that this growth corridor will help these developments to continue. The growth strategy will also work in tandem with local growth plans encouraging greater economic growth across the north.
Northern Powerhouse Rail is an important part of this strategy as it will transform the northern railways between now and the middle of the 21st century, building a strong growth corridor between Liverpool Manchester Leeds Bradford and Sheffield as well as improving connectivity to places like Newcastle and Hull.
The government also hopes that the railway will help to bring growth not only to the major cities, but also to towns like Rotherham, Huddersfield, Wigan, Washington and Warrington. It will improve connectivity and enable people in the north to work further from home and attend leisure activities that are at greater distance than they can now.
Positive responses from Rotheram and Burnham
The news that there will be £45 billion pledged from the government towards the building of Northern Powerhouse Rail has been welcomed by North West mayors Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham.
Steve Rotheram commented: “A creaking rail system has held the North back for too long. Our journeys aren’t just slower – our growth has been slower too. Poor connectivity doesn’t just hold people back – it holds our economy back. It limits our productivity, restricts freight capacity, and chokes off opportunity.
“Today that changes. This is the kind of ambition we’ve been crying out for. Not another empty slogan or back of a fag packet plan but real investment, delivered in a proper partnership with local leaders that will unleash our latent potential and unlock growth in all of our communities right across the great North.”
Andy Burnham commented that the announcement marks a “significant step forward for Greater Manchester”.
No more false dawns
Transport links, and with them opportunities for economic growth, have been chronically underfunded for years. Indeed, a recent report found that the North had just lost out on as much as £140 billion of transport funding compared with the south over a period of ten years.
So, this pledge by the government is indeed both long awaited and welcome news. However, there must be an element of caution. Northerners have been promised these kinds of improvements a number of times in recent years, without anything concrete actually happening.
It is important then that both the general public and local and regional politicians in the Northwest and throughout the North, do all we can to make sure that the government keeps to this pledge and we finally get the rail system we deserve.
No more false dawns.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
