How Labour will reverse Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 betrayal – Louise Haigh

The scaling back of Northern Powerhouse Rail, coupled with the scrapping of HS2 up to Leeds, is a double blow for our region.

These schemes weren’t just important in terms of journey times, they would have created more than 150,000 jobs and connected 13 million people in major towns and cities in our industrial heartlands.

As Labour’s new Shadow Transport Secretary and an MP for Sheffield, where I was born and bred, I honestly find this devastating.

MPs stood for election in our region promising to deliver this investment. It might sound old fashioned, maybe even naïve, but I still believe that promises made should count for something.

It was then-Chancellor George Osborne who first announced plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail in 2014.

The Conservatives have since committed and re-committed, promised and re-promised more than 60 times in the last seven years.

Just two months ago, at this year’s Conservative Party Conference, the Prime Minister said: “We will do Northern Powerhouse Rail – we will link up 
the cities of the Midlands and the 
North.”

They promised they would invest in our region, help rebalance the economy and deliver opportunities to towns and cities that desperately need them; and to really rub salt into the wound, they’re pretending they’re still doing it. They’re trying to take us for fools.

The rail plan announced by Ministers will leave our region in the slow lane for years to come, and hamper the connectivity that could and should make us the force to be reckoned with that we can and should be.

HS2 will now only run to the border of Yorkshire, the new Leeds-Manchester line via Bradford will be scrapped and the Selby to Hull route will no longer be electrified.

This matters because it means we won’t have the additional trains we were promised, so we won’t keep pace with passenger demand, keeping more cars and HGVs on the road, worsening congestion and air pollution.

The worst part is that the communities who will feel the brunt of years of 
broken promises, empty words and no action are at the same time being squeezed by the Conservatives’ tax hikes and rising bills, as those with the broadest shoulders remain largely untouched.

Those same working people will likely face a record increase in rail fares in January. They’ll be paying more than 50 per cent more to get to work than a decade ago – relying on a crumbling, unreliable and overcrowded system that prioritises private company profits ahead of passengers and the high quality services denied to many travellers.

Boris Johnson was elected on a promise to level the playing field, to make things better for households across the country.

The reality is that the Prime Minister pocketed this support in the knowledge he would go back on his word.

There is another way. I, and the Labour Party, will always stand up for our proud region and hold the Prime Minister to account for his promises to deliver the new lines and rail investment here in Yorkshire.

We will be urging Conservative MPs across Yorkshire to join us.

Labour would reform our transport networks, so they work for the people and communities who rely on them and ensure they are fit-for-purpose for the economy of the future – with investment spread more evenly across the country and young people no longer having to leave the places they grew up in to find work.

Most importantly, Labour would 
put working people first, using the 
power of government and the skill of business, to ensure good quality jobs 
are created here in Britain – in every region.

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