Transport bosses will urge Government to reconsider £96bn rail plans during inquiry

Martin Tugwell, chief executive of the organisation, and interim chair Councillor Louise Gittins have been called to give evidence during the Transport Committee’s inquiry into the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) for the North and Midlands.

It comes after Transport for the North described the plan as “wholly inadequate” and said it provided less than half of the £40bn needed to transform the North’s “largely twin-track Victorian infrastructure”.

The plan, published in November, stated the eastern leg of HS2 will now only run to East Midlands Parkway, and trains will then continue on an upgraded line to Sheffield but not reach Leeds.

Revised plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) will see the Government build a £17bn high-speed line between Warrington and Marsden, and upgrade the Transpennine Main Line, instead of constructing a line that runs between Liverpool and Leeds, via Manchester and Bradford.

Transport for the North is preparing a written submission for the Transport Committee’s inquiry, which calls for the Government to review the IRP and deliver both projects in full, before Mr Tugwell and Councillor Gittins appear to give evidence.

Tim Foster, Transport for the North’s strategy and programme director, said: “Clearly the IRP falls some way short of the expectations that were set, both in terms of the delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail and the completion of the HS2 network to Leeds and Manchester.

“Transport for the North has had, for a very long time, the position that both NPR and HS2 need to be completed in full.”

In a new report on the IRP, the organisation said it is concerned passengers could face “sustained closures and disruption” on the network for up to 15 years, as the Government is focused on upgrading existing lines rather than building new infrastructure.

It also said the IRP takes a “fragmented and poorly defined approach” to improving the rail network and there is an “absence of technical detail” and the economic and environmental impacts have not been assessed.

Transport for the North had been drawing up the business case for NPR, but the Government took charge of the project after publishing the IRP in November.

The Department for Transport said the £96bn IRP will increase capacity, and improve connectivity and reliability, while providing better value for money and delivering improvements sooner than previous plans.

It said building the NPR line that was suggested by Transport for the North would cost an extra £18bn, open in 2043 and shave just four minutes off the journey between Manchester and Leeds.

But it also said under the new plans, some NPR trains will begin running this decade, and journeys between Manchester and Leeds will be 22 minutes faster.

The upgrades will also cut journey times from Leeds to Liverpool to 73 minutes (currently 106) and Leeds to Bradford to 12 minutes (currently 20), according to the 162-page plan.

The deadline for submitting evidence for the Transport Committee’s inquiry is January 24, but no date has been set for the first hearing.