HS2 focus must shift to the North – The Yorkshire Post says

These saw 82.2 per cent of Northern’s services reach their destination ‘on time’ in the four weeks prior to June 27 – a remarkable increase.

And the reason is this: the shutting down of the economy means fewer trains are in service and, in turn, the rail infrastructure is under less pressure.

The greater test will come when passenger demand begins to increase as more people are implored by Boris Johnson to return to work.

But the performance data also validates the need to accelerate Northern Powerhouse Rail – there’s growing scepticism about the pace of progress on plans to upgrade the trans-Pennine line between Leeds and Manchester – and for it to press ahead in conjunction with HS2.

For, even if more people work from home in future, the Government is counting on greater use of the railways by all sections of society if Britain’s future carbon emissions are to reach ‘net zero’.

And, while the interim report by the National Infrastructure Commission highlights this, the frustration is that the need for closer co-ordination and collaboration was self-evident a decade ago when plans for HS2, and the upgrade to trans-Pennine links, were first proposed.

A damning indictment on the extent to which the transport requirements of the North had been marginalised by successive governments, the NIC is also right when it warns that many of the problems on this region’s railways are “acute” now and can’t wait 20 years for HS2 to be completed.

It is why as much attention – and urgency – needs to be given to maximising HS2’s benefits in this region as is being given to the high speed railway line’s first phase between London and Birmingham.

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