High-speed rail between Leeds and Sheffield is key to region’s future – The Yorkshire Post says

This, for the record, was the ‘fig leaf’ offered to the region last November by the London Government when its £96bn Integrated Rail Plan effectively scrapped the eastern leg of HS2 and downgraded Northern Powerhouse Rail.

HS2: Abandon Leeds, Sheffield and Yorkshire at your peril, Prime Minister – The Yorkshire Post says

But it shouldn’t even be necessary when the Department for Transport already has more civil servants, many of whom are engineers, earning over £200,000 than any other Whitehall department – and when the case for a new high-speed link between West and Yorkshire is already proven.

The facts speak for themselves. When Crossrail is open shortly, it will take just over 20 minutes to travel by train from nearby Reading to London – a distance of around 30 miles. Services will be every five minutes.

By way of contrast, the fastest journey time between Sheffield and Leeds – a comparative distance – is 40 minutes and the average journey is one hour and six minutes.

Such a state of affairs would not be tolerated by Ministers – or commuters – in London and the Home Counties, so why should the North continue to accept second best, and be fobbed off like this, when trust in the Government’s levelling up policy is already limited?

This region now needs to use its collective strength and exert maximum pressure on Ministers to reverse this nonsensical and short-sighted decision if it is not already too late.

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