Bradford betrayed by Edwardian rail service after Northern Powerhouse Rail snub – The Yorkshire Post says

These national schemes would have transformed the future fortunes of Britain’s seventh largest city and which is proud to be home to the youngest population in the country. Now future generations are seeing their prospects put at risk by a plan rivalling the Beeching cuts of the 1960s for short-sightedness.

Leeds train misery is evidence that HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail downgrades as short-sighted as Beeching cuts – Tom Richmond

And both Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, and HS2 Minister Andrew Stephenson are deluding themselves when they stand up in the House of Commons, as they have both done in recent days and weeks, and say that journey times between Leeds and Bradford will be cut to just 12 minutes under the Integrated Rail Plan.

That might be so – Government promises at the moment are about as unreliable as the old Pacer trains – but what Ministers will not say is that these faster trains will be at the expense of slower services which serve commuter communities such as Bramley and New Pudsey.

Another example of this Government misleading voters, this shows that high-speed trains simply cannot share the same infrastructure as more local stopping services without the capacity of the rail network being increased in Leeds and the rest of West Yorkshire. That is why HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail need to be built in full – and why the DfT should heed former rail ministers like Harrogate MP Andrew Jones who also suggest that the Goverment is on the wrong track in Bradford.

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