Government 'hesitancy' around Northern Powerhouse Rail due to 'weak business case', report says
The Government’s “hesitancy” around Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is due to a “weak business case” and the ongoing Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), a new report has said.
The long-promised high-speed network connecting the North’s major cities has long been championed by mayors and business leaders as the key to growth and prosperity.
It was first conceived by George Osborne in 2014, but more than a decade later still hasn’t got on track.
Rachel Reeves has committed to the scheme in both her budgets, however an announcement has repeatedly been pushed back.
Yorkshire leaders have been pushing for the Chancellor to include the electrification between Leeds and Sheffield and a new through station at Bradford.
However, amid the ongoing Government delays, a new report by Greengauge 21, a not-for-profit specialising in high-speed rail, questions NPR’s business case.
The paper, titled “What is the Purpose of Britain’s Major Rail Projects?”, studies HS2, the TRU, the East West Rail line linking Oxford and Cambridge and NPR.
On the latter, it says: “NPR is built on a vision – of creating a Northern Powerhouse – a collective of the major northern cities which together it is argued, could build a strong inter-connected group and act as a valuable economic counterweight to London.
“NPR is, in short, the epitome of vision-led planning for transport, and on a multi-regional scale. The question 10 years later is: why hasn't it been progressed?
“One reason is that with its emphasis on creating fast/high-speed links between the major northern cities, its virtues are diminished year-by-year by the progress made on implementing the TRU, which delivers part of the NPR improvement using the existing railway network.”
The report adds that choosing between an “upgrade approach and a new build is always challenging”.
The TRU is an £11bn project, funded by the Government, which is the second-biggest piece of infrastructure work in the UK after HS2, and is set to be completed in the early 2030s.
It will see the lines between York, Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester electrified, and will eventually cut journey times between York and Leeds by 10 minutes, and Manchester and Leeds down to 42 minutes.
However, The Yorkshire Post understands that while some parts of NPR will require new stations and lines - such as at Bradford - other sections will piggyback on the upgraded route between Manchester and Leeds.
Yorkshire mayors Tracy Brabin and Oliver Coppard are pushing for the line between Leeds and Sheffield to be electrified as part of the scheme, which would not require a whole new build.
The report also says that the Government will not be able to end all of the North’s train woes unless it redesigns many of the stations, including Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds.
“As senior rail industry figures have pointed out, the rail network problem to be
addressed in fact lies within the major cities,” it explains.
The poor design of the former was partly to blame for the disastrous effects of the May 2018 timetable change, while the latter causes the most delays of any station in the country.
The report adds: “Continuing Government hesitancy on NPR probably reflects several concerns … a weak business case, with very high capital costs and a reliance on potential economic uplift across multiple major cities that today have relatively limited economic interplay.
“Nobody can be sure whether the ‘chemistry’ of the Northern Powerhouse vision would actually materialise.”
However, mayors like Ms Brabin are clear on the benefits: “If you want to see growth in the economy, the regions have to grow.
“This is the way we grow the economy, by making sure we can travel between these amazing cities.”
A Government spokesperson said: “The North has been stuck with second-rate transport for too long and we are fully committed to righting that wrong, investing in upgrades and getting spades in the ground.
“We reaffirmed our commitment to the Northern Growth Corridor in the Budget, and we continue to engage with mayors to deliver NPR.
“This is a major investment, and we are committed to getting it right – taking time to plan carefully, learning from past mistakes to truly deliver for the North.”