Govt should invest £22bn in public transport, says NIC

Lets be honest its time for Manchester and Birmingham to get proper undergrounds like London. I cant think of many other areas in Europe with populations of 3million without one,

But not in the big six urban conurbations!

Love that they recommend more money going to Birmingham but no mention of Liverpool, a metro area of over 2 million people which desperately needs the Merseyrail network expanding to fuel economic growth

Here’s to another 3-4 years of feasibility studies… by that point everyone will have moved on and have something new to blame for cutting the investment.

Liverpool city region not being mentioned is no surprise from any report by Armit.
No wonder we have to shout louder than most.

HS2 is needed but won’t really help the statistic about 20% of Manchester’s population. There has been noises about a potential undergound link in the city for a fair while, anything really that provides another line through the city and an alternative route to the Cornbrook corridor would be welcome, as those sections are the most constrained.

To those cities that have been given much, shall be given more. To those that have been given little, shall be given even less.

The Metrolink will be incredibly congested in less than a decade, this is putting it mildly.

TFGM need to crack on with red routes and bus gates, otherwise the only alternative is billions on tunnels.

Liverpool doesn’t get the recognition it should but let’s be honest the council and local politicians are sub standard.

The Tory party is elected to cut private and corporate taxes. If taxes are cut we will all have more money to spend. It’s common sense.

If Germany had won the war we’d all be speaking German but at least Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds would have proper transport networks.

Personal habits need to change as well, there are far too many people making short unnecessary car journeys. That people keep doing it despite traffic jams and causing pollution is bonkers.

It’s a measure of the weakness of Liverpool’s body-politic over the long-term that it still struggles to be heard on issues such as this. It has an outstanding metro network, but one which provides no coverage in the east or south east of the conurbation, nor in West Wirral – and is therefore in need of further investment. The fact that much smaller conurbations such as Bristol are in the frame says everything about how poor our political and executive leadership has been for years.

Anonymous 11am – how’s that going for them? Last time I checked they’ve been in power 13 years yet we’re all paying the highest taxes for a generation and yet nothing works and the public sector is on its knees. What leadership!

These studies are stalling mechanisms, by the Southern Colonialists to stop proper needed investment in the North, Midlands and everywhere else in this country neglected by Westminster for half a century. We know what is needed. We need integrated transport systems in all our major cities, of which Liverpool is clearly one. I am not sure when Bristol became a bigger city than Liverpool? Also Manchester and Liverpool, and their hinterlands ,need to be connected with high speed trains, to create a large rival to London, with Leeds and Sheffield integrated as one unit too. There is no money for transport, according to Sunak, but there is 3 and a half billion pounds being spent to upgrade the Piccadilly Line on the London Underground and a billion upgrading Liverpool Street, with 500 million found to make Bond Street underground, state of the art for Crossrail . Why has that 4 and a half billion ,not been equally distributed between the four big Northern cities, The North East and Birmingham? When railway stations are getting more investment in London, than whole regions in this country, there need to be serious discussions had by those representing places outside the South East. This should not be left to Metro mayors.

This isn’t rocket science. German cities figured out how to scale hybrid tram/train high floor light rail years ago, you build a city centre tunnel.

A proper rail link to Liverpool docks would massively benefit the whole of the north but no mention? Disappointed that our politicians across the north are fighting hard for this . Especially as the much needed road link through Rimrose valley appears to be in real doubt b

Reading the comments here, I’ll add a couple of things. First, don’t feel too disheartened if Liverpool isn’t specifically mentioned. In a country with multiple large cities, a report can’t mention every one. Liverpool would (should) be included in the group of big cities that need this funding. Manchester & Birmingham are just mentioned specifically as they are the two biggest cities, but Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow etc are all just as important.
Secondly, yes, we should have underground lines in the city centre of Manchester. Ideally, quad tracks going North/South and another set East/West. Two tracks for local services (e.g. Metrolink or future Metro combined) and express services (HS2 – when resurrected and NPR)
Finally, we also need to quad track all express routes into MCR so that our suburban rail can be fully optimised. All express trains must be removed from current tracks in the metropolitan area so the local trains can have greater frequencies.
Oh… and 22 billion for all the big cities won’t cut it. You need about 20 billion for each city to catch up with what the rest of Europe has

As the full report notes, the cities that were highlighted were those that are seeing significant jobs growth, hence a need to invest in public transport to cater for increased demand. Liverpool is not producing much in the way of jobs growth, hence why it isn’t mentioned. If Liverpool not being prioritised concerns you I suggest you ask your local politicians what they are doing to attract business to Liverpool.

Manchester needs an underground to realise it’s true potential. The Metrolink is OK but it’s clogs up the streets, is slow and it’s already overcrowded and doesn’t cover enough of Greater Manchester. A proper underground Euro style metro system is needed.

Trams for Liverpool & Leeds are needed ASAP. And a tunnel through Manchester city centre.

Manchester needs a proper integrated underground system. None of these trams that have to stop for traffic, or half a network of trams and half a network of trains. Convert all the infrastructure in Greater Manchester onto one system and add a fair few more tunnels and new lines! Will it cost billions? Yes. Is it needed to ensure that Manchester remains a competitive city? Yes. Will it be worth it in the long run? Absolutely yes!

@anonymous 3:21, well this is part of the problem isn’t it? The more LCR is ignored for investment or employment relocation and training the more it will fall behind. For example quite a lot of hype was extolled when Hs2 was going to Manchester and all the investment it would bring there at the expense of Liverpool/Leeds and Bradford.
For some reason probably historic Liverpool gets over looked even by the Labour Party.
Just this week another 4,000 new Civil Service jobs are being transferred/created to Birmingham, plus the recent ones to Manchester, fuelling jobs growth no wonder we in LCR are sceptical of the Government here, that is our perception of everything from Whitehall, nothing new there!

Anonymous – ‘If Germany had won the war…’

Was in both Berlin and Milan recently on a round trip; Milan’s public transport won hands-down as there were strikes and disruption in Germany, but regardless of that, the Italian city was a model of efficiency; let’s just drop all the stereotypes which are not helpful.