UK on Tuesday said it would move ahead with a rail infrastructure programme worth up to 45 billion pounds for northern England, as part of plans to improve transport links in the region.
The government said it would deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail in three phases. The first phase will focus on improving connections between Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds and York, and Leeds and Bradford.
The second phase will involve building a new railway line between Liverpool and Manchester via Manchester Airport. This will be followed by work to improve connections between Manchester and Yorkshire.
British cities outside London face a larger productivity gap compared with cities in other countries. Organisations including the OECD have identified limited and outdated transport links as a contributing factor.
Rail services in the north, which includes three of England’s five largest metropolitan areas, face capacity constraints on routes that date back to the Victorian era.
Prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, which is trailing Reform UK in opinion polls, has said reducing regional inequality between London and other parts of the UK is a priority.
“If economic growth is the challenge, investment and renewal is the solution. That's why we're reversing years of chronic underinvestment in the North,” chancellor Rachel Reeves said.
Most of the spending, capped at 45 billion pounds in constant prices, is expected to take place during the 2030s and 2040s. The government said there would be no binding opening dates, citing lessons from the HS2 high-speed rail project, which was scaled back due to rising costs.
In October 2023, then Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak cancelled the northern leg of HS2 as costs increased and the infrastructure watchdog said there were fundamental problems in managing large projects.
The government said on Tuesday it also plans to build a new railway line between Manchester and Birmingham after Northern Powerhouse Rail is completed, but said this would not be a reinstatement of previous HS2 plans.
HS2 will now run only between London and a point slightly north of Birmingham and is expected to open sometime after the previously targeted 2033 date.
(With inputs from agencies)
