Don’t be misled by Grand Shapps ‘wild assertions’ over Integrated Rail Plan – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE electrification of a small part of the Midland Main Line was approved back in February 2019 as a short add-on to the electrification of the line from Bedford to Kettering (The Yorkshire Post, December 22).

Integrated Rail Plan will level up North as Grant Shapps blasts critics of decision to downgrade high-speed rail in Yorkshire

Grant Shapps is misleading the public by asserting that the start of this work is in fact the start of his plan to electrify the whole Midland Main line to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.

Two flaws in Grant Shapps defence of £96bn Integrated Rail Plan – The Yorkshire Post says

He says he’s not wasting time – what a cheek!

Shapps is promising undeliverable journey time savings from Sheffield and Chesterfield to London as a result of electrification, which will in no way make up for the loss of the eastern leg of HS2.

This Integrated Rail Plan will get North back on track and prove its critics wrong over high-speed rail – Grant Shapps

It is clear that Shapps’ Integrated Rail ‘Plan’ contains a string of wild assertions that have no basis in fact.

It is no wonder that he has no credibility with rail engineers and professionals – they just don’t believe him.

I recently wrote to Shapps 
over media reports suggesting the Treasury had withdrawn funding for electrification projects. Since then I have not heard a peep.

So let’s not be shy in telling it like it is.

No amount of spin or bluster can cover up the truth – the Integrated Rail ‘Plan’ is about levelling down.

You can’t believe Shapps or the Tories when it comes to our railways. They simply cannot be trusted.

From: Nina Smith, Chair, Railfuture Yorkshire Branch.

IN his defence of the Integrated Rail Plan (The Yorkshire Post, December 22), Grant Shapps says that it includes a new mass transit system for West Yorkshire. No, Mr Shapps, it doesn’t. It merely includes £100m seed corn funding. Why did the plan not include full funding for this vital investment?

The truth is that the Treasury and its Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, cut the level of funding available for the Integrated Rail Plan because they do not seem to understand that investment yields economic benefits over the long time.

Come on Chancellor, prove me wrong, and quickly come up with full funding for the long overdue West Yorkshire tram system.

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