PM doubles down on Northern Powerhouse Rail pledge
A new electric line connecting Liverpool to Hull, with a stop in Bradford, is very much on the agenda, according to Prime Minister Liz Truss.
In an interview with ITV, Truss reaffirmed her promise to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail in full – a promise she had originally made during her campaign to be Conservative Party Leader.
Truss said the timetable for NPR would be set out in due course. She was adamant that there would be a stop at Bradford.
“There will be [an electric line] and it will stop at Bradford,” Truss said. “I’m very clear about that.”
NEW: PM Liz Truss tells @itvcalendar she will build a new electric railway line between Liverpool and Hull with a stop in Bradford.
It’s a u-turn on the government’s £98bn integrated rail plan and the full northern powerhouse rail project northern leaders have long called for. pic.twitter.com/9E8szdd2aw
— Harry Horton (@harry_horton) October 3, 2022
NPR is a £39bn project dedicated to improving the east-to-west travel links in the North. Transport for the North estimated that the new line would contribute £14.4bn to the UK economy by 2060.
The full NPR promise was scrapped, however, in November last year with the introduction of the government’s £96bn Integrated Rail Plan. The loss of the rail plan was met with frustration from many of those in the North.
As one might expect, Truss’s statements on ITV about reviving the plan have been met with cautious optimism.
Transport for the North tweeted that it welcomed Truss’s commitment to a new line with a stop at Bradford.
“[The line] will bring jobs and economic growth to the North and is a cornerstone in Levelling Up left behind communities in the region,” TfN said.
We welcome this commitment to build #NorthernPowerhouseRail in full with a new line via #Bradford.
It will bring jobs and economic growth to the North and is a cornerstone in Levelling Up left behind communities in the region. https://t.co/bQczPaJOXt
— Transport for the North (@Transport4North) October 3, 2022
Charlie Cornish, group chief executive at Manchester Airports Group, said: “The Prime Minister’s renewed commitment to delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, including a new line between Liverpool and Hull with a station in Bradford, will help unlock the North’s full potential and drive a rebalancing of the UK economy.
“The priority now must be to deliver the once-in-a-generation investment as soon as possible, to transform links between the North’s towns and cities, and connectivity with the rest of the world through Manchester Airport.”
Greater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham tweeted: “This is a u-turn for which the PM deserves real credit. It is a railway that the North of England desperately needs and we will work with [the Prime Minister] to make it a reality.”
To be fair, this is a u-turn for which the PM deserves real credit.
It is the railway that the North of England desperately needs and we will work with @trussliz to make it a reality. https://t.co/X9cl38RXsk
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) October 3, 2022
Fair play on this. Whether or not she’ll deliver her word though…
(Also should commit to an underground station at Manchester)
By Levelling Up Manager
Andy Burnham is right but I’ll believe it when there are spades in the ground.
By Anonymous
Not going to happen under this Government.
By Anonymous
Can they commit to this without the risk of losing the funding when there’s another change in leadership
By Anonymous
Excellent news. Now build it, link it via an underground station at Piccadilly and let’s get the north moving.
By Anonymous
This is what the North needs, more so than HS2, this is the true leveller bringing high speed connectivity between all the Northern cities, it should also try to serve all of our bigger airports, eventually including Newcastle airport.
By Anonymous
How many folk need to travel between Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool for work? Maybe they will use Zoom and its successors?
By Anonymous
It’s blatantly not going to happen. They have no control of the finances nor do they know what they can and can’t afford.
By Anonymous
Fair play Liz, just don’t u-turn on your u-turn and whilst you’re at it commit to an underground through-station at Piccadilly, and get this all completed in half the time.
By Verticality
Starting at Liverpool
By Anonymous
I will believe it when I am on a train experiencing this improvement.
By Anonymous
How many folk need to travel between Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool for work? Maybe they will use Zoom and its successors?
October 04, 2022 at 10:48 am
By Anonymous
Some people travel between these cities for conferences, or leisure. Are they suppose to do these via Zoom too ?
By Anonymous
@Anonymous 10:48, as someone who is aware of this website and clearly shares a same interest as the rest of us in development in the North/North West, you will be well aware of the benefits NPR brings to all of the ‘folk that need to travel’. I suggest you take your trolling over to Twitter – then again your cowardice of trolling Anonymously speaks volumes. @PNW please do more to clamp down on these trolls.
By Powerhouse Police
It would be so much better if this was integrated into HS2. That way HS2 could evolve into a true UK inter-city high speed rail network.
By MC
It has already been said but I wish to support the idea of a new underground station at Picadilly as it is the final piece of the Northern rail levelling ~up.This has to be welcomed as good news.
By Robert Fuller
Would be fantastic, especially with interchange to underground HS2 at Piccadilly.
Unfortunately I doubt Liz Truss and her advisers expect ever to be held to account and deliver this.
By W
Truss can promise anything she likes because she won’t be around to deliver any of it
By Andrew
Forgive my ignorance, can someone give some context to all the comments on an underground station in Manchester Piccadilly? Not heard about this so wondered what the background is?
By Sam
Hi ya, Powerhouse Police. I was not trolling. Could you give us a link to the “economic audit” so we can see the ‘benefits’. And a cost-benefit analysis that counts a few thousand office workers cutting 15 minutes off their journey time as a real socio-economic benefit is not good enough. Folk in a proper hurry will always go by car.
By Anonymous
@Sam It’s a suggestion by Andy Burham, MCC, and probably many others. An underground HS2 platform would allow additional through East-West connectivity, as opposed to the terminus arrangement currently proposed. The primary benefit is that it would unlock more capacity would and be more future-proof. It’s also probably hellishly expensive and the economics benefits might not stack up.
By Superhans
@Superhans , thanks certainly sounds like it makes more sense. Important to not lose time savings from HS2/NPR in city centre movement. In Birmingham, the new Curzon Street station is 15min walk from New Street. So unless you are travelling directly from the city centre you lose half of the time saved from HS2 (30 mins saving on Bham to London journey) travelling between stations!
By Sam