Government should reverse 'short-sighted' refusal to build full Northern Powerhouse Rail line, says top university boss

Setting out his vision for the creation of a ‘Golden Octagon’ of Northern university cities to complement the well-established ‘Golden Triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London in the South, Prof Jeffery said infrastructure investment would be key to making it a reality.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “Some of the issues are about how you put a bigger framework in place that makes the North more attractive to invest in.

“One area where the South has hugely benefited is infrastructure investment - transport in particular.”

Transport for the North had put forward a £42bn plan for new connections between Liverpool and Hull, up to Newcastle and down to Sheffield, with a new line between Leeds and Manchester via Bradford at the heart of the proposals.

But in November 2021, the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan rejected the full project in favour of a cheaper £17bn scheme involving a new high-speed line between Warrington and Marsden on the boundary of Yorkshire that would be part of improving the network between Liverpool and Hull.

Prof Jeffery contrasted the situation in the North with the recent opening of the £19bn, 73-mile long Elizabeth Line serving London and surrounding areas.

“How far is it from Manchester to Leeds and couldn’t we do with an additional capability there?

“They are two fantastic dynamic cities and [we should be] connecting beyond them to Liverpool in the West and to Hull in the East. If we had that kind of infrastructure investment, then the connectivity, the time savings, the attractiveness to think about from Manchester doing business in York and vice versa would be so much higher.”

When asked to comment on the Government’s position that they are making a £17bn investment into NPR and the argument that is all that can be afforded, Prof Jeffery said: “I’d probably say that is shortsighted.”

He added: “There is a huge amount of energy to release. I’m not saying we should go back over all the decisions that have been made but I wonder if it was the right starting point to do HS2 which is all about getting more people to London more quickly.

“I think the greater urgency is connecting the powerhouses across the North, that are our major cities and the university drivers within them. I think that is a huge national priority and I hope we can continue to make the case for that and perhaps secure change in the coming year.”

With a General Election due in the next couple of years, Prof Jeffery said there is an “electoral logic” in both main parties committing to the full NPR programme along with wider investment in the region.

“I would like to see, working with brilliant organisations like the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and Transport for the North, a real challenge to the two parties to come up with a programme which really does some of that economic rebalancing - not against the South but releasing the strengths of the North.”

The Government is currently understood to be willing to investigate the possibility of improving connections to Bradford that go beyond what the IRP set out.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Northern Powerhouse Rail is a key government priority. We remain committed to investing £96bn to overhaul and modernise rail connections across the North and Midlands, as set out in the Integrated Rail Plan.

"This is the largest rail investment ever announced by a UK government and will bring enormous benefits, including doubling capacity on the UK’s busiest rail route and halving journey times between Manchester and Birmingham.”