Lord Blunkett and mayors show review of Yorkshire rail to Transport Secretary

The review - which is set to be published in May - will look to make recommendations to Government ahead of the spending review on how to improve the region’s railways, which could in turn boost growth.

The mayors - Tracy Brabin, Oliver Coppard and David Skaith - met the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, and Rail Minister, Peter Hendy, in York on Thursday evening with Lord Blunkett, to discuss the first draft of the report.

Lord Blunkett told The Yorkshire Post that “the joined-upness of the bid is really important” when pitching to the Government.

“Connectivity is going to be a major driver for achieving the Government’s goals in other areas, and housing is the classic example.”

The New Labour titan said all of the recommendations are linked to making sure that the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) “is a starting point, and it shouldn’t be seen as an end point”.

The £11.5bn project involves electrifying the 76-mile route, building new tracks, installing digital signalling equipment and upgrading stations. It is due to be completed by 2033.

First announced back in 2011, TRU will increase capacity – allowing eight more trains to run each hour – improve reliability.

It will also cut journey times, so people can travel between York and Manchester in 61 minutes and from Leeds to Manchester in 42 minutes.

Sir Keir Starmer recently announced an additional £415m towards the project at an event near Huddersfield, however Lord Blunkett was clear this is just a “starting point”.

He explained the report compares the £12bn going towards a Manchester to Liverpool high-speed rail link, with the investment east of the Pennines.

“We need that kind of money being pumped in to connect our cities and towns, including the small towns, who benefit enormously from people being able to travel into Leeds or into Sheffield or into Bradford,” he said.

“The speed with which people could travel between Bradford and Leeds, if you got it down to 12 minutes, what a difference that would make.

“When you've got this connectivity, that suddenly opens up all sorts of possibilities.”

Lord Blunkett compared the route between Leeds and Sheffield, with Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The cities are of similar sizes and the distance between them is roughly the same, yet in Scotland there are around 1.2m passengers travelling between the cities compared to 320,000 in Yorkshire.

Sheffield is one of the only major cities not to have any electric train services, while delays on this line filter across the rest of the network.

The review will call for the rapid electrification of the line. Lord Blunkett explained: “Getting the number of direct trains up, getting the speed up and getting the reliability up is going to persuade people that they can do the two-way journey.

“That then has a major knock on in terms of growth and regeneration.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Reliable and affordable public transport links are essential for supporting jobs and driving economic growth, key to our Plan for Change, and making travelling quicker, easier, and greener.

"We are investing in the North and delivering transformational projects across the region, such as the multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade, and will continue to work with local leaders to improve rail connectivity.”