Reeves to back Liverpool to Manchester railway line
Funding for the rail link, which would pass through Warrington and Manchester Airport, forms part of a wider £15.2bn investment in regional infrastructure expected to be announced by the chancellor today.
National newspapers briefed on the matter are reporting that a new railway line between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly is due to get the nod when Rachel Reeves addresses the House of Commons at next week’s spending review.
Ahead of that, Reeves will be in Greater Manchester today to outline plans for a significant investment in the North, which follows reports that she would overhaul the Treasury’s green book approach to generate £113bn for capital projects.
The mayors of Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester say a new Manchester to Liverpool line could provide a significant boost to the northern economy.
Currently, there are more than 200 services a day between the two cities on existing lines. It is hoped a new link could speed up journey times and, more importantly, free up capacity for stopping services and freight on existing lines as well as unlocking various regeneration initiatives in and between the two city regions.
The Liverpool-Manchester Railway is the missing piece of the North’s transport infrastructure, the mayors said when they unveiled the scheme at MIPIM earlier this year.
Studies commissioned by the city regions show that the project would generate a £90bn to the UK economy, support delivery of around 300,000 new homes over 20 years, and help create more than 40,000 jobs by 2050.
It is not clear how much the government plans to invest in the project.
Other projects falling within the scope of Reeves’ £15.2bn infrastructure splurge include £2.5bn for Greater Manchester’s Bee Network, an investment that will support efforts to decarbonise the system and deliver the Metrolink to Stockport.
Transport infrastructure projects in West Yorkshire, the East Midlands, and the North East are also in line to benefit.
Henri Murison, chief executive of Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the backing of “major local transport projects with serious, long-term investment will be critical to driving regional growth”.
“The economic revival of Greater Manchester, enabled by sustained investment in the tram network in particular, has already begun to close the productivity gap with London. To build on that success and replicate it across all our regions in the North, we need to see key projects delivered.”
Great news but Manchester now needs a proper rapid transit network that links into the current metrolink if it is to fulfil its potential. Local government have done their bit for the past 30 years. It’s now time for Westminster to back us heavily.
By Bob
How much of this is actually new investment? Rishi announced some of these investments in 2023.
By Anonymous
Looks like Liverpool been given short shrift again, we get trains running to a substandard Lime St while the expensive ,major,new infrastructure goes to Manc.
Reeves,of course, makes her announcement in Gt. Manchester and Henri Murison gives us loads of details of extra benefits for the Manchester tram and bee network, he seems to know next to nothing about what’s happening at the Liverpool end.
Liverpool needs an expansion of Central Station as its an overcrowded bottleneck, it needs the re-opening of the Edge Hill spur to enable this, Lime St should be upgraded so it looks like a first class rail terminus, also Steve Rotheram needs to bring forward a vision for the expansion of Merseyrail within the City region like Burnham does.
Let’s just hope there’s still money left by the time any work commences at the Liverpool end.
By Anonymous
Amazing that Andy Burnham and Labour priority is a line through his hometown how convenient.
By Fred Done
Like they didn’t know that already 🙂 Good news though. Hopefully HS2 will resurface too
By Steve
@anon 8:53 relative to your size id say Liverpool has pretty well 1.6 Billion. Its Bristol that should be moaning, a faster growing and economically bigger city than Liverpool but has only been give 800 million.
By Bob
All Manchester/Andy Burnham biased again. Why can’t the rail line pass through Liverpool John Lennon Airport as well as Manchester Airport? All Steve Rotheram is proposing is a bus link which is not good enough. There’s no vision for Liverpool, we always seem to get the crumbs….if we’re lucky!
By Anonymous
Bristol isn’t bigger than Liverpool
By Anonymous
Liverpool is getting £1.6 bn ! For heavens sake Stop moaning ! Some areas are getting next to nothing..
By Ivor
Typical, Liverpool would benefit immensely from an expanded Merseyrail network, but all it will get is a shared scheme with Manchester, Labour needs to start paying the city back for its loyalty and support, however Labour not making up the 10 million to help fund the expansion of the Astra Zeneca facility in Speke said it all. Cities such as Liverpool need investment to boost the economy so everyone benefits, talk about own goal.
By GetItBuilt!
I get the feeling that again Liverpool will be picking up the crumbs left by Manchester on this one. If it doesn’t involve a rebuilt Central Station with greater capacity then it’s pointless.
By Anonymous
One would assume that this new railway line is to have Eurostar style trains that would run up to 320 kilometres per hour full stop!
By Anton Aaron
To the person moaning about Liverpools share. Stop moaning. I’m from St Helens and apart from the Station and some new buses which we’re all getting, we get nothing from the new rail link, along with our substandard non-Merseyrail services. You aren’t doing badly at all. The reason Lime St can’t expand is because it’s landlocked. Central will almost certainly be the terminal station for this new line
By Anonymous
I would suggest the main reason why the proposed line is not going to John Lennon is lack
of proven demand; with 5 million passengers there isn’t a feasible economic case. Besides Liverpool Parkway is pretty close to the airport with a regular bus service to complete a journey.
By Anonymous
Fred Done – I think that’s the most ridiculous comment I’ve ever read in PNW.
By Anonymous
The constant petulant ‘they’ve got more than me’ inter-borough comments on these pages don’t help anyone.
By Anonymous
@ Anon 8.41am, the airport is on an upward trajectory and will grow even further with direct rail links making access more convenient, you don’t wait for things to happen, you make them happen.
By Anonymous
just re-badged the investment promises from the previous government.
By Anonymous
If you look carefully at the proposed transport improvements you will see all 6 boroughs seem to benefit equally
By George
@ Fred Done, I’ll betfred that’s not your real name.
By Anonymous
This line is not the problem. Nor is it urgent. The urgency is the line from Manchester to Leeds and beyond. The bit that HS2 was supposed to do first!
By Lynne Mackenzie
Burnham wants to reinstated the HS2 leg from east of Warrington thru Ringway airport then thru a 9 mile gold plated tunnel to an underground station in Manchester. Economic MADNESS. This is the thin end of the wedge to get HS2 into Manchester.
The largely disused Manchester ship canal can be filled in to canal boat width then used as a fast rail line. Little land take using an existing DIRECT transport artery. Staring us in the face. The line can run thru John Lennon airport as it has to run past it, running via a big dogleg thru Ringway is madness.
Rotheram again is being led by the nose by Burnham.
By John
Still no station for Liverpool John Lennon Airport?
It’s a shame to see it side-lined again with disjointed transport strategy.
By stuart meadowcroft