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Emer Moreauand
Faarea Masud,business reporters
Major rail improvements in northern England “will actually happen”, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said, as she acknowledged the HS2 rail project had become a “byword” for disastrous planning.
Her comments came as the government set out its vision for improved links between England’s northern towns and cities in a bid to transform the region and boost the UK economy.
The multibillion pound scheme, known as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), aims to deliver faster journeys and more frequent trains through upgraded and new lines, and improvements to stations.
It has been more than a decade since such a project was first proposed, but Reeves said improvements should be felt by the early 2030’s.
However, parts of the plan that require new construction will not see spades in the ground until after 2030.
One section of the route – between Leeds and Manchester- is already being upgraded.
Passengers should start seeing improvements there earlier because “we’re not going to wait until the whole line is built for people to be able to see the benefits”, Reeves said.
She told the BBC she “totally gets the cynicism” as passengers in the North “have been let down”.
But she added: “We’re doing this properly, doing this right.
“Because I want to give confidence to people that this is actually going to happen.
“It’s going to improve your train links, whether you live in Pudsey or Rotherham, or Newcastle or Darlington, or in the centres of Manchester and Liverpool, and Bradford and Sheffield.”
An initial £1.1bn has been earmarked for design and preparation.
It will be delivered in phases, starting with upgrades to lines between Leeds, York, Bradford and Sheffield, the government said.
The second phase will be the building of a new route between Liverpool and Manchester, and the third will improve connections between Manchester and cities in Yorkshire, according to the outline of the plan.
The government said the “transformation” of travel in the North would shorten commutes and encourage investment across the region, adding up to £40bn to the British economy.
Successive governments have promised to unlock the North’s economic potential with investment in infrastructure.
The Northern Powerhouse project was first proposed by former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne in 2014, while Boris Johnson was later elected on a “levelling up” agenda.
However, promised rail investments were scaled back.
The former head of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), which was set up to oversee investment and rail network developments in the UK, said it would be “quite a long time before we see anything practical because it takes time to develop”.
Richard Bowker told the BBC NPR is a “great idea”, but “it’s a very long delivery programme”.
The SRA was abolished in 2005.
The government plans to make NPR the focus of a wider Northern Growth Strategy, which will be published in spring.
The first phase of NPR will also see improvements to railway stations in Leeds, Sheffield and York, the government said.
The plans include pushing ahead with a much-anticipated new station at Bradford, which supporters say would allow young job seekers from the city to access opportunities across a much wider area.
A new station is also expected at Rotherham Gateway.
Additionally, the Department for Transport (DfT) said that the business case to re-open the Leamside line in the North East would be pursued.
‘North needs TLC’
Commuter Sarah told the BBC she was cynical of any major work happening in terms of rail improvement – especially as her train to Manchester Airport had just been cancelled and she was likely to miss her flight.
“There needs to be a bit of care, TLC [tender loving care] given up North,” she said of the rail infrastructure.
There’s a “lot of cancellations up north”, she added, comparing her experience with trains in London “where it’s not like that”.
The government has not announced a firm budget or committed specific funds beyond 2029, apart from the £1.1bn to develop the plans.
Instead, a cap of £45bn has been set on central funding. The government said this could be topped up by contributions from local government.
It expects major construction works to continue through to the 2040s, but has no set completion date.
“For too long, the North has been held back by underinvestment and years of dither and delay,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.
The DfT said lessons had been learned from attempts over the last decade to build the HS2 network, which is severely over budget, behind schedule and has been scaled back dramatically from its original concept.
It was originally supposed to be a Y-shaped line from London and splitting at Birmingham towards Manchester and Leeds.
It will now terminate at Birmingham and is expected to cost at least £80bn.
Reeves said: “We are learning lessons from HS2, which is a byword for a disastrous project which is massively over budget and where scope has had to be curtailed because of cost overruns.”
The government also said that following NPR’s completion it intended to build a new rail link between Birmingham and Manchester, but it is unclear whether it would be a high-speed line.
The government is aiming to avoid a repeat of the HS2 cost over-runs by producing a detailed plan over a three-year period. That also allows it to delay allocating further funding while the public finances are under pressure.
Rob Morris, joint chief executive of Siemens Mobility in the UK & Ireland told the BBC the announcement “looks very real” and will boost productivity in the North.
But he warned he is wary, having seen “stop start” funding for rail projects under previous governments.
The Conservatives accused the government of “watering down” Northern Powerhouse Rail, saying ministers had “put back any plans to actually deliver it and rewritten timetables on the fly”.
Shadow rail minister Jerome Mayhew said: “Northern Powerhouse Rail could have been transformational, empowering regional growth and regeneration. Under Labour it risks becoming a permanent mirage that is endlessly redesigned, downgraded and never delivered.”
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, an organisation set up to support the coordinated economic development of the north of England, said the plan provided a “clear route to higher productivity growth”.
He added: “Northern Powerhouse Rail will enable a single labour market more like that of London and the South East so a young person in Bradford could aspire to work in Sheffield or Manchester, or a business there attract talent from further afield than they can today.”
