Why High Speed Rail is needed in the North now – Jim Steer

Though hugely significant, and essential to long term growth, the truth is that flagship infrastructure schemes like NPR will not be delivered to the North until the 2040s.

Yet the Prime Minister has emphasised that he wants to see benefits delivered to the Northern economy as soon as possible and referred to the concept of ‘High Speed North’, and doing so is essential to the Government’s pledge to ‘level up’ Britain.

To make this real, immediate investment in High Speed North is needed to kick-start the Northern economy.

Simply put, the North deserves better. The rail network across major cities including Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool does not work. There are serious problems to be addressed in the next five to 10 years that cannot wait for flagship schemes.

Published today, Revisiting High Speed North, a new report from Ian Wray, David Thrower and myself, drawing heavily on the work of Sir Peter Hall, sets out why a gradual approach of upgrading the existing rail network needs to start straight away, before ultimately linking up with major longer term projects to create High Speed North.

As we look ahead to the post-Covid recovery, Government will need to champion public works which can be delivered quickly on the ground to get the economy moving.

Inclusive growth will mean investing in connections from ‘left behind’ communities to new job opportunities, tying together the North’s strongest labour markets like Leeds and Sheffield together with places such as Dewsbury and Wakefield, so that economic benefits can bespread across the wider region.

To do this, lessons can be learnt from the North’s successful motorway building programme during the 1960s and 70s. Built in stages and building up to a coherent overall plan, it was constructed in financially digestible chunks.

A criticism that has so often been levelled at large scale rail infrastructure projects in recent years is cost. Yet, by constructing High Speed North through a series of gradual and much needed advancements, the whole development process becomes far more palatable – and passengers start to get benefits earlier in the process.

As a major transport hub, Leeds will play a key role in facilitating increased east-west connectivity. The city will be central to the integration of improvements to the existing network and HS2 to create High Speed North.

While much is made of new links between cities north-south and east-west, there is a danger of overlooking the need to create super-hubs at our major city centre stations.

Leeds should not be allowed to slip behind, just because HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail services are still many years ahead. Expansion of its facilities should be a priority for early action, not an afterthought.

Another proposal at the centre of 
our report is the creation of a new ‘Piccadilly Super Hub’, located in Manchester. The suggested development would involve a new cross-city tunnel from Salford into central Manchester. Though clearly of benefit to the North West, its impact on the wider Northern economy, including Yorkshire, would be significant.

Such infrastructure could not only be used by fast trains from Chester and North Wales, Liverpool, Blackpool, Barrow and Glasgow, but have services emerging eastwards and across the Pennines to Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York. There is no need to wait for the arrival of HS2 and NPR to start building these super-hubs.

It is clear that the North has suffered from poor connectivity for too long. Through gradual, incremental development, creating better links, the North’s cities and towns can be connected into the long term prosperity that high speed rail can bring, and, most importantly, develop an investment path through the next five, 10 and 15 years for upgrades to the rail network.

This is not an ‘either or’ situation. Through High Speed North, there is the opportunity to transform the Northern economy through upgrades to the existing network and delivery of major new infrastructure schemes.

Jim Steer is director of High Speed Rail Industry Leaders.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor