Angela Smith: We need fairness over our crucial railway connections

Between the cities of Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool, 14 million people live and work and travel. Much of the rail traffic has to go through an antiquated interchange of rail routes.

There is no doubt that, in the past 10 years, there has been a transformation in rail across the North with more and more passengers choosing to travel by train.

That modal shift has supported significant economic growth in the north, as people are able feasibly to commute further to work.

However, that growth is now threatened, not only because of the reckless risks being taken with our economy by the coalition, but because of the need to modernise our infrastructure so that we do not constrict growth and discourage investment.

Some people might ask: “Why is Manchester’s railway network so crucial to the North or the country as a whole?”

In the early days, the project was sponsored by the Northern Way – an organisation, incidentally, formed by the three regional development agencies abolished by the Government – and was called the Manchester Hub, not the Northern Hub.

Politically, the decision was taken at an early stage to rename the developing project the Northern Hub, because it was quickly recognised that the benefits realised were not just for Manchester but for the whole of the North.

It was felt that if we were ever to get the project off the ground and funded by the Treasury, it had to be seen as something that benefited the whole of the North. That is why I make reference to Crossrail – it unknots the problems with cross-country trains in a way that will impact on a population of 14 million people.

What is the Northern Hub project? It is a series of works, new track and increased platform capacity in Manchester that will remove track conflicts and relieve traffic congestion.

The works will allow up to 700 more trains a day, with space for 44 million more passenger journeys a year. Completion of the works will allow two new fast trains an hour to run between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool, with six fast trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester, as opposed to four now. Just as important for someone who represents a south Yorkshire constituency, journey times between Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester – the “golden triangle” of the North – will be reduced significantly.

Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester are equidistant, economically important and interdependent, and we have to maximise the potential of those three great cities. I have argued previously that the present situation whereby it takes up to an hour and often longer to travel the 30 miles between Sheffield and Manchester is unacceptable.

That represents a journey time not a great deal different from that experienced by our Victorian forebears – that is how little the North of England has moved forward in rail journey time and capacity in the past century.

The estimated cost of those improvements is £260m – a large sum, but not great when placed alongside the £16bn budget for Crossrail.

The Chancellor’s recent autumn statement announced the Government’s intention to fast-track some elements of the Northern Hub project. That commitment is welcome but it goes nowhere near far enough.

Work on the Ordsall chord will enable trains from Manchester Airport and Liverpool to Leeds to use the modernised Manchester Victoria station, but that only partially answers the question of congestion in and around Manchester.

But it will not relieve all congestion and will not help passengers from Sheffield, and those further east on the Hope Valley line, to enjoy faster, more frequent trains. That has a massive impact on the East Coast and the Humber estuary. The Hope Valley line is critical to all train journeys from Cleethorpes and Grimsby through to Manchester Airport, as well as Sheffield.

If the North of England is to close the economic gap with London and the South East, it is my firm belief that this project has to be given the green light in its entirety.

For many years, the North has lagged behind the South East in rail investment. Now is the time to change that.

It is time to acknowledge that transport spending for the North has lagged significantly behind that made available for London and the South East, and that action needs to be taken to correct this unfairness.