Patrick McLoughlin and Andy Burnham to share Integrated Rail Plan criticisms with MPs

The Transport Select Committee has established an inquiry into the plan, which caused huge disappointment in Yorkshire when it was published in November.

The county was left with just two miles of new high-speed track after the HS2 line to Leeds was curtailed and the Government decided against a full new Northern Powerhouse Rail high-speed line between Leeds and Manchester via Bradford.

The HS2 Eastern leg will now stop in the East Midlands rather than going to Yorkshire, while a new NPR high-speed line will only run between Warrington and Marsden on the edge of Yorkshire.

The inquiry comes after the influential Transport Committee's recommendations to pause the roll out of smart motorways over safety concerns were accepted by the Government.

The committee's inquiry into the IRP intends to examine "the potential effect of the plan on rail capacity and connectivity in the region, and on the Government’s levelling up agenda".

Read more:

Industry bosses seek U-turn on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail plans...

The first evidence session tomorrow will see Mr Burnham questioned by MPs at 9.30am.

Mr Burnham has previously proposed the idea of using a Hong Kong-style tax power called land value capture to help pay for the building of the full NPR line and initial talks have been held with the Department for Transport about whether such an idea is feasible.

The Greater Manchester mayor is scheduled to be followed at 10.45am by Martin Tugwell, the chief executive of Transport for the North, and TfN's new chairman, Lord Patrick McLoughlin.

Lord McLoughlin, a former Conservative Transport Secretary, was appointed as chair last week and subsequently released a statement criticising the IRP.

He said: “A key focus for the TfN Board remains the need to press the case as to why its preferred approach to Northern Powerhouse Rail remains fundamental to securing the long-term economic future of the North. The government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) goes against the best interest of people in the North and fails to deliver the step-change in rail services that is the only sustainable, long-term solution.”

Current Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who is likely to give evidence to the inquiry at a later date, has strongly defended the IRP and recently labelled Northern mayors who had criticised it as "irrational".

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