It has taken nearly a year since the General Election, but at last the Labour government is starting to deliver for its heartlands in the north of England. In the week that we learned that the North has been shortchanged in terms of transport spending over the last 10 years or so, to the tune of £140 billion, there was at least some more hopeful news in Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review on 11 June.
It was reported on 11 June in the Guardian that Rachel Reeves had committed in the Spending Review to building a better railway across the north of England.
The chancellor also promised that the government’s plans to “take forward our ambitions for northern powerhouse rail” would be published shortly. £3.5 billion more funding was confirmed to finally begin work on serious upgrades on the TransPennine route between Liverpool and Leeds.
For once, the North and the regions were the big beneficiaries with Reeves having already announced £15 billion for city regions to develop local trams, rails and bus projects over the next five years, including much needed funding for the extension of the metro past South Hylton into a loop round to Washington, Follingsby and Pelaw.
The Treasury Green Book
There was more welcome news for the North with the announcement that Reeves was “publishing the review of the Treasury Green book – the spending rules that have been seen as prioritising investment in the most populous and productive areas, namely London and the south-east.” She said it would “support place-based business cases and ensure no region has Treasury guidance wielded against them””.
It was also announced that about £750 million a year would go towards bus services, including extending the £3 bus fare cap from the end of 2025 until March 2027. Another £25 billion over four years was said to be set aside to fund the continued construction of HS2 between London Euston and Birmingham.
It was noted that, “Northern leaders have been waiting for the new government to commit to new railways across the north since the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 by Rishi Sunak in 2023. The detail of the northern powerhouse rail investment will be published in the infrastructure strategy next week, but are expected to set out plans to fund a new line west of Manchester Piccadilly to the city’s airport, part of the scrapped HS2 route, and upgrades that would massively increase speed and capacity on the Liverpool-Manchester route”.
It was even suggested that a new station at Bradford might also be finally built which would enable that large Yorkshire city to be integrated into a future high-speed rail for the North. It has been said that the new station at Bradford, “along with the TransPennine upgrade budget confirmed in the spending review, and future electrification and line works to Sheffield and Hull, would eventually create a much faster and reliable line across the north of England”.
In response to all these possibilities for the North, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a business-led think-tank and advocacy group, commented that the commitment was “a major step forward for growth across the north”.
Northern Powerhouse Rail
All these are very hopeful signs but we could at last be moving towards what has been described as Northern Powerhouse Rail which would be a new rail network for the north of England and both increases capacity and decreases travel times. In other words, a railway fit for the 21st century 200 years after the railways began here in the north of England.
If carried out fully, this would be the North’s single biggest transport investment since the industrial revolution 250 years ago. It would feature new and significantly upgraded railway lines and journey times would improve. There will also be a greater number of trains, allowing the economy in the North to operate on a higher level.
Consequently, it will become much easier to move between the region’s towns and cities helping people to get to work and leisure activities, with a potentially huge boost to both the regional and national economy. Indeed. It has been said that, “it is much more than an infrastructure project – it has the potential to be a social and economic catalyst for the region and the people and businesses of the North. It is an investment in infrastructure that will deliver benefits to the economy, quality of life, education and the environment”.
Benefits to the North East
It was also reported on MSN on 11 June that, a new railway link would be developed between Manchester and Liverpool, calling at Manchester airport and Warrington, and that “journeys between the cities usually take between 45 and 55 minutes, with multiple stops in between, but the new rail link could reduce it by 20 minutes”.
While all this may seem a long way away from the -North East, these proposed developments will help to increase our connectivity to the rest of the north of England along the M62 belt and this will be beneficial to our economy. At present it can take two and a half hours to get to Manchester and over three hours to go between Newcastle Central Station and Lime Street in Liverpool. The proposed improvements could see journey times cut to about one and a half hours to Manchester and two hours to Liverpool from Newcastle, Consequently, the North East would no longer be quite so isolated and our economy would benefit. It means that our voice is heard more loudly and more often within Northern debates.
Comment
The last few weeks have seen encouraging signs that we are finally being listened to in the North East and indeed across the wider North. The funding for the Washington Metro loop and to improve bus services is very welcome, as are any improvements to the Trans-Pennine rail route between the North East, West Yorkshire, Manchester and Liverpool.
However, there is still a long way to go before our region – which gave birth to the railways 200 years ago this year – can really be said to have a public transport system fit for the 21st century. It shouldn’t take one hour and 17 minutes to go from Newcastle to Middlesbrough by train; but it does. Similarly, it shouldn’t take an hour and a half to go between Newcastle and Carlisle by train, but again it does.
We still need to see improvements on numerous rail lines and also a more integrated system linking buses with trains on the Metro and better facilities for park and ride, all encouraging motorists to leave the car at home or not drive as far with it and to use public transport more.
Rural bus services still need vast improvement, and we also need to think of people who are particularly reliant on public transport, such as the young and the elderly.
However, we are now starting to see some sort of a vision for a better public transport system, which can help us to decarbonize our economy, while also allowing for greater social mobility. Let us all hope that this welcome trend continues.
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