Jayne Dowle: It's time that we bridged the great Northern divide

So why did it take me more than two hours on two tortuously slow trains to get home last Wednesday evening? For a start, the thought of using the car and sitting in a rush hour queue for an hour each way at Mottram Moor was too much to bear. Going by rail was my reluctant, but preferable option.

However, by the time I reached Wombwell station at 8pm after leaving Manchester at 5.50pm, I was beginning to wonder if I would have been better off trying to find a return flight from Doncaster Sheffield airport.

I can guarantee that anyone who has ever made the journey between South Yorkshire and Manchester will have asked themselves a very similar question.

When I look west from my back door, I can sense Manchester just over the foothills of the Pennines. It’s only over there somewhere, but reaching it can feel like a journey to the other end of the earth.

Not that Manchester is some kind of holy city. It does, however, lay a strong claim to being the second most important and influential city in the UK after London. In the interests of the so-called Northern Powerhouse and the general economic, cultural and social prosperity of our own region, we need much more connectivity between East and West.

The foundations of this have must be drastically-improved transport infrastructure. In particular, plans should concentrate on developing much better links between South Yorkshire and the North-West.

Angela Smith, the Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, put this very succinctly in a House of Commons debate last April. Citing a report from the National Infrastructure Commission, she pointed out that Sheffield’s economy is small compared to that of Leeds and Manchester, with lower productivity and skills levels.

The biggest hurdle is that Sheffield is isolated geographically from the opportunities just over the border because neither road nor rail connects one city effectively with the other. The two economies are largely separate; and this is much more of a problem for Sheffield than it is for Manchester.

Living where I do in Barnsley, it’s also a problem for South Yorkshire as a whole. My home town actually borders Manchester by the Woodhead Pass. Yet I could count on the fingers of one hand the people I know from here who travel to Manchester to work every day.

How frustrating is it for us in the towns and villages of South Yorkshire to look towards those foothills and think of the opportunities which beckon just out of reach? How much higher would the aspirations of our young people be if they knew that the UK’s second city (after London) was within an easy commute?

I spoke to a Barnsley deputy headteacher recently about where he takes his pupils on university visits. Sheffield, Huddersfield, and sometimes Leeds he said. What about Manchester? He looked a bit taken aback and mumbled something about it being too far away.

I thought of his excuses when I was on the tram from Media City to Piccadilly on the first leg of my long journey home. All around me were young people aged in their 20s – smart, sophisticated, chatting animatedly about their jobs and studies. I want my children to know that there are ambitious opportunities open to them too, and that they won’t have to live in the ruinously-expensive capital to enjoy them.

This is not to put down the economic powerhouse that is the West Yorkshire city of Leeds. However, in the interests of creating a strong Northern England overall, it is short-sighted to presume that all the jobs and growth should be come from one location. And in addition, despite the recurring traffic nightmare that is the M62, Leeds already benefits from a strong mutually-beneficial relationship with Manchester. This both enhances economic activity and work opportunities and underpins a bond between the two dominant centres. Sheffield meanwhile, is left behind.

As Ms Smith pointed out in her Parliamentary debate, 55,000 vehicles a day travel between West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester whereas only 10,000 motorists make the journey from South Yorkshire.

She explained this disparity as follows: “The implication is that the vast majority of potential travel between them simply does not take place, because the infrastructure needed to accommodate it does not exist.”

We really need to open up this debate and air it as widely as possible. Already, under the aegis of the Gvernment’s Transport for the North agenda, there are proposals to build both a new road and rail tunnel under the Pennines.

Feasibility studies have been undertaken. Residents, landowners, rural leaders and all the bodies that such plans might affect, from the Peak District National Park to commuters standing daily on the overcrowded Hope Valley line, will have been asked for their views. The next stage of the report is expected to be revealed this year. We literally cannot afford to ignore it.