YP Letters: Transport needs of the North depend on an end to rivalry

The new entrance to Leeds Station could symbolise the importance of Yorkshire councils working together.

THANK you for Tom Richmond’s column on devolution (The Yorkshire Post, January 12). It summed up the situation perfectly. Our future is far too important to be lost in party political bickering and rivalry.

We must unite, throughout North, East and West Yorkshire (New Yorkshire?) plus the Humber to seize the moment.

As a former director of the Transpennine campaign, I now attend some meetings in Greater Manchester as well as discussions about the future options for Yorkshire.

Following the agreement of 10 metropolitan boroughs to elect a single mayor and secretariat for the whole region, Greater Manchester is now powering ahead and already has four devolution agreements in place with central Government plus the promise of related finance. A comprehensive transport strategy is well on the way, built upon their excellent tram network, extending to most parts of their region of 2.7 million people (anticipated to rise to three million). Connectivity is, as you say, at the heart of the devolution/regeneration agenda.

Contrast this with the situation in Yorkshire. Sheffield/ South Yorkshire has already opted to look to its southern neighbours. Fine, but all the more important therefore for the rest, Greater Yorkshire and the Humber with a population of 3.7 million, to work together to create a powerful regional organisation able to work alongside Greater Manchester as the real Transpennine Northern Powerhouse.

I accept that Leeds City Region, with only five metropolitan areas, and two of those quite small, has done much valuable work, but times have changed and new opportunities are emerging.

London is united as a single travel to work (or leisure)  area primarily by the Tube system.

Our extensive overland rail network in the North, inherited from the Victorians, could serve the same purpose, uniting a Northern Powerhouse population of 10 million or  more, if it were significantly upgraded.

This close inter-connectivity is even more important than the projected HS3. This fast inter-city spine overlaid on the wider network, like a kind of Northern Crossrail, could perhaps be better produced by extending the Leeds HS2 to Manchester and Merseyside and the Manchester HS2 extension to Leeds, York and Hull. Subject to the creation of a strong united powerbase, anything can be possible.