Ministers told to end transport bonanza in London

The Government will spend £4.5bn on 100 new “super express” trains – with at least 500 carriages – for the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line as part of a reduced Inter City Express programme. The trains will be able to run on electric or diesel and will replace existing 35-year-old diesel InterCity 125 trains.

The scheme will create 500 manufacturing jobs in the North East and provide thousands of extra rush-hour seats on the line from London to Doncaster, Leeds and York, with an extra train in either direction every two hours.

But it marks a significant scaling down from the £7.5bn project first drawn up which would have bought up to 1,400 carriages, later reduced by Labour to 750 when the scheme was put on hold shortly before the General Election.

The existing 20-year-old electric trains used on the line will stay in service for up to another 15 years, and the first new trains are expected to arrive on the East Coast line in 2018. Agility Trains – a consortium headed by Hitachi – has been confirmed as the preferred bidder, and will be responsible for maintaining and cleaning the trains for 30 years as part of the deal.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the project – which was welcomed by Labour yesterday – would create thousands of jobs in the supply chain. He also announced plans to electrify the Great Western line as far as Cardiff but today he comes under increased pressure to give the North a fair deal on transport funding.

Echoing the Yorkshire Post’s Road to Ruin campaign, the Commons Transport Select Committee criticises the extent to which London has seen billions of pounds poured into projects while other parts of the country have been neglected and calls for action to rectify the situation to support projects like the Northern Hub, a package of rail improvements around Manchester which will ease congestion across the North.

Louise Ellman, chairman of the Transport Select Committee, said: “The Government must do more to correct regional disparities in transport investment. Transport spending in London for 2008–9 was almost twice the UK average per capita and with schemes like Crossrail (costing £15bn) this trend looks set to continue.

“The economic recession has however had a bigger impact in the North so there is an urgent need for increased investment in transport schemes within and between northern cities – such as the Northern Hub rail scheme – in order to boost their capacity for economic growth.”

The report points out that London has enjoyed “substantially” higher levels of capital investment than other parts of the country, with investment increasing by 40 per cent between 2004-5 and 2009-10, far quicker than elsewhere.

The committee also warns of a “vacuum” created by the Government’s decision to sweep away a tier of regional government, and claims this could hold up transport projects and widen regional divisions.

It calls for a White Paper clarifying the Government’s criteria for funding schemes.

MPs also call for a stronger strategy for developing the UK’s major ports and airports and warn that an integrated economic development strategy backing up the vision for transport investment was “so far absent”.

Labour said the new inter-city trains was “great news”, but criticised delays in announcing the plans.