UK transport secretary Grant Shapps has revealed the
government’s £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan, which he said will improve
journey times and capacity between London and the North. However, the plan
includes scrapping part of the controversial High Speed 2 (HS2) project.
The improvement programme will include local service
upgrades across the North that will happen 10 years earlier than planned,
according to Shapps, and will achieve the same, similar, or faster journey
times to London and on Northern Powerhouse Rail than the original rail plan. He
claims it will double or potentially triple capacity on some routes.
Although the eastern leg of HS2 between the East Midlands
and Leeds will be scrapped, the plan includes HS2 East services from London to
Nottingham and Birmingham, while HS2 West will connect London with Manchester and
Wigan. High speed services will also serve Derby, Sheffield and Chesterfield on
an upgraded mainline. Meanwhile, he says Northern Powerhouse Rail developments
will connect Leeds and Manchester in 33 minutes, down from 55 minutes
currently.
As well as the new high-speed lines, Shapps said the IRP
includes the electrification and upgrade of two diesel lines – the Midlands
Main Line and the Transpennine Main Line – and upgrades to the East Coast Main
Line to provide high speeds, power improvements and digital signalling.
Shapps said the IRP was developed after it “became clear”
that the full HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes would have cost a
combined £185 billion and would not have entered service until the early to mid-2040s.
Work on the IRP will start by Christmas 2021, Shapps told
the Commons this morning, adding that the plan will “fire up economies to rival
London and the South East, it will rebalance our economic geography, it will
spread opportunity, it will level up the country, it will bring benefits at
least a decade or more earlier”.
The announcement comes after the government revealed a £360
million investment in the roll-out of contactless pay-as-you-go ticketing
across the North.
HS2 has long been a sticking point for the Conservative government, with prime minister Boris Johnson giving the project the green light to be built in full in February 2020 despite growing concerns over rising costs. Environmental campaigners have fought the scheme since its inception in 2015, saying reviews into its construction failed to take into account the impact of destroying ancient woodland to build the line.
Broken promises
The plan also includes £200 million in immediate funding for a new mass transit
system in Leeds and West Yorkshire, as well as promised support for the West
Yorkshire Combined Authority for the development of the project.
Shapps also said the government would “look at” how to take
HS2 trains to Leeds in future.
However, Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn said his constituents
have been “betrayed” by the prime minister, who “repeatedly promised”
to build HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in full. He said the new plan will
leave a “great big hole” in journeys between Sheffield and the East Midlands
where Victorian railways will remain.
Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon has called the IRP a “great
train robbery” and accused the government of ‘selling out’ the North and
Midlands, saying the scaling back of Northern Powerhouse Rail and the scrapping
of the eastern leg of HS2 “are a massive blow for our regions”.
“Both schemes would have created 150,000 new jobs connecting
13 million people in our towns and cities and industrial heartlands,” McMahon
added.
Business travel industry experts agree, with Business Travel
Association CEO Clive Wratten saying: “The BTA is dispirited by today’s rail
review. Whilst it is commendable to have plans for faster railway improvement
delivery, the lack of ambition in scaling back HS2 is a massive blow for the
Northern Powerhouse.
“Post pandemic, we are seeing domestic business travel on
railways at only 35 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. These rail connections
were vital for the recovery of our railways and the rebuilding of the UK
economy.
“Business travellers are turning to cars and planes, betraying
the government’s commitment to the environment because of the lack of rail
connections across critical routes.
“We need to do better to connect our towns and cities.”