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

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

The Cabinet minister accuses his Labour opponents – and the media – of misrepresenting the £96bn strategy after the Government reversed past commitments to build Northern Powerhouse Rail and the eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds.

Leeds train misery is evidence that HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail downgrades as short-sighted as Beeching cuts – Tom Richmond

Writing in The Yorkshire Post, Mr Shapps says: “As the dust settles, though, it’s clear that the fury of some in politics and the media is simply not shared by communities right across the North and the Midlands.

How ‘deplorable’ east-west rail divide betrays Yorkshire – Andrew Adonis

“Big-city politicians may have become advocates for high-speed rail above all else. But by more than six to one, polling shows that Northern voters prioritise better local rail or bus services over new high-speed lines.”

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

He concludes: “At a time of deep challenge for rail, the IRP is the largest-ever vote of confidence by government in the railway.

“That is why some of the reaction to it was, at best, ungenerous. In the end, though, it is delivery which will count, and we are happy to be judged on that.”

The Minister’s comments were today dismissed by Labour’s Louise Haigh – the Shadow Transport Secretary and Sheffield Heeley MP.

“The fact of the matter is that this Government promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, in full, over 60 times and in three manifestos, they promised HS2 to Leeds and Midland Mainline electrification over a decade ago,” she told this newspaper. “Once again the North has been shafted and Government Ministers expect us to be grateful.”

Her condemnation came after peers criticised the Integrated Rail Plan in a debate last week with Andrew Adonis, a former Transport Secretary, describing the downgrading of new high-speed lines in Yorkshire as “a dog’s breakfast” that will create a new east-west economic divide.

Former Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake, now a Labour peer, questioned the ambition of the Government’s levelling up agenda in the face of “more delays, more studies, and more vague timeframes” as £200m was confirmed for a feasibility study into a West Yorkshire mass transit system which could cost £2bn to build the first phase.

In today’s article, Mr Shapps makes no reference to the surprising admission of Baroness Vere, a junior transport ministers, to peers when she confirmed that no assessment had been made to determine how many extra trains will be able to operate in the North each day. “Many of the questions raised cannot be answered now, not because I do not have the answers to hand but because they do not yet exist.” she said.

But Mr Shapps played down political – and public – scepticism during a visit to Leicester ahead of working beginning tomorrow on the electrification of the Midland Mainline between Kettering and Market Harborough. He said it is “exciting to get things done now rather than waiting decades” before adding: “We’re going to have more reliable services, we’re going to have better capacity, and we’re going to have modern trains on lines delivered to people one heck of a lot earlier than it would have happened.

The Minister said work will also take place over Christmas to speed up the electrification and re-signalling of the railway between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge that will benefit passengers across the North.

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