Why I oppose North’s ‘cheap and nasty’ rail plan – Yorkshire Post Letters

IT was interesting to read the comments made by the Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps, The Yorkshire Post, January 19).

Exclusive: Grant Shapps brands mayors ‘irrational’ over criticism of £96bn Integrated Rail Plan and Northern Powerhouse Rail downgrade

It is clear from his article that my criticism of his government’s watered-down Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) has touched a nerve.

None of this should come as a surprise: when pared-back plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail were first suggested back in 
2017, I made clear that our area would not accept a sub-optimal option and Northern leaders worked, we believed, constructively with government through Transport for the North to develop strong alternative proposals.

Successive Conservative Prime Ministers have promised the North transformational investment in our railways that would cut journey times, increase capacity, improve connectivity and help to rebalance the UK’s economic geography.

What we have been offered does none of that.

The Liverpool City Region was assured we would get a new twin-track high-speed line from Liverpool city centre to Manchester via Warrington.

We were told we would get increased freight capacity out of the Port of Liverpool, freeing up more room on the tracks for passenger services. And we were promised a massive boost to the local economy through better, faster connections.

Instead, the current proposals for our area offer a cheap and nasty option that will leave our region no better connected, even more congested and arguably financially worse off.

But this isn’t just about the Liverpool City Region, this is about the government failing on its core mission of ‘levelling up.’ It is another broken promise to millions of people across Northern England.

Ask Dan Jarvis about the failure to deliver faster trains between Sheffield and Leeds; ask Tracy Brabin about the broken promises that will leave Bradford without direct rail links to countless Northern cities, or Andy Burnham about the promised new station at Manchester Piccadilly, which has failed to materialise. Jamie Driscoll and the North East barely even got a mention.

At every point in this process, we have tried to work with a revolving cast of secretaries of state but it is clear from the IRP they presented that collaboration was all one way.

So far Mr Shapps has refused to meet with us and seems more interested in peddling cherrypicked figures and taking pot-shots through the media than delivering the rail revolution we need and deserve. My message is unchanged: meet with us and put this right. It is not too late.

Proper transport connectivity is a red line for everyone across red wall – and beyond.

It is the key to making levelling up more than just more empty words from this government.

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