Rail Minister Huw Merriman has today, Monday, 4 December, announced a £3.9 billion funding boost for the TransPennine Route Upgrade which is designed to reduce carbon emissions and deliver significantly better services between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.
Work is already well underway to electrify the route, and today's announcement brings the current total investment in the upgrade to £6.9 billion. Further funding will be provided as the project progresses towards the total overall cost of up to £11.5 billion, which is similar to the Government's funding for Crossrail.
The Transpennine Route Upgrade also underpins delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) for which the Government has recently announced another £12 billion, and with savings from the cancellation of the HS2 extension, Bradford and Hull have been brough into into the NPR scheme.
A new station at Bradford will support regeneration of the city and provide a new rail connection to Manchester via Huddersfield which will almost halve journey times and double the frequency of services to provide an extra 1,000 seats per hour.
Today in Manchester, the Rail Minister is hosting a roundtable event to listen to stakeholders and businesses seeking to ensure the transport schemes in the Midlands and North will provide a benefit to the communities they serve.
Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: “The Transpennine Route Upgrade represents the first major step in delivering transformed east-west connectivity in the north and I'm delighted to announce this multi-billion-pound funding boost to move to the next stage of delivery.
“Today's announcement demonstrates this Government's commitment to delivering its Network North plan which will improve journeys, help to level up regions and grow the economy.”
Neil Holm, Managing Director for the TransPennine Route Upgrade, said: “Transpennine Route Upgrade is well underway with building the infrastructure that bring passengers more frequent, faster, greener trains, that run on a better, cleaner and more reliable railway for generations to come.”
“This commitment by the government to our programme allows us to move two of our largest projects from design into construction and delivery. It brings us one big step closer to delivering the future of rail travel in the North of England.”
Darren Oldham, Transport for the North's Director of Rail and Road said: “This is a major milestone for the TRU project as it upgrades a key rail corridor across the North, bringing improvements for passengers and extra capacity for freight. TfN has been working with partners for some years to bring forward these benefits, which will lay the foundations for further transformational development from Northern Powerhouse Rail.
“We fully welcome the investment in this corridor as it will improve journey times, reliability, capability and capacity between Manchester and York via Huddersfield and Leeds. It will also reduce the pressure on the road network, particularly the M62 between West Yorkshire and Manchester.”
Its not new money, electrification has been muted since the 1970s. A survey thro Standedge tunnel costing millions on feasibility of electrification was scrapped as no headroom. Perhaps they can now think of lowering the track instead. As one politician said, we can dig another tunnel.
I just don’t understand how the new Bradford station fits into this Leeds to Huddersfield to Manchester electrification. It’s nowhere near that route.
How is interesting.
Back in the 1960s we had three routes crossing the pennies that were comfortable had a reliable buffet on at least one route and when engineering works loomed trains were diverted not replaced by a bus.
But now with constant rail strikes. Buses replace trains due to engineering work. Shortage of train crew and more importantly trans Pennine getting rid of brand new trains, how do they plan to deliver this.
Concrete it all over and make a road
Do politicians do anything but make promises and break them
This will bring a much needed,long overdue upgrade to Trans Pennine trains. I look forward to seeing it completed.
The Politicians hanker after cancelling projects wasting money achieving nothing except scuppering the economy. They must be working for our enemies.
Safest not to believe any politician’s promises, particularly those who probably won’t be in power in 12 months. Words come cheap!
Definitely getting closer to Election.
Umpteenth time this upgrade has been announced but as ever no absolute commitment to full electrification East of the Pennines.
Expect next step will be proposals going out for consultation with stakeholders.blah blah!!
Are we in grave danger of a promised electrification right through to Hull? I need a reality check.
We all expect a cancellation after the election
I think we’ll all believe it only when we see it. Any other West European country would have electrified the line to an important city like Hull many years ago.
So, as Trans Pennine rains get less and less the government try “to pull the wool” with fancy promises of money that won’t be available for at least 20 years and all because there is an election on the horizon.