It has been widely reported in the railway media that the Transport for the North (TfN) partnership — involving 19 local authorities, Network Rail, HS2 Ltd, Highways England and industry leaders — is aiming to take ‘a fresh approach to transport’ in northern England, now it has been formally launched.
CEO Barry White (pictured) told the All-Party Parliamentary Rail Group on 15 May that public consultation on a draft 30-year Strategic Transport Plan closed on 17 April, and that Ipsos MORI is now reviewing the feedback ahead of the publication later this year of what will be “an economic plan as much as a transport plan.
“A particular focus is on developing a transport network that would support ‘employment liquidity’ — making it easier for people to change jobs and reducing the risk of trying out new opportunities.
"London very successfully provides this liquidity, but poor connectivity in the North of England means that people often feel they would need to move house to accept a job in another town.”
In the short term, TfN (
www.transportforthenorth.com) is ‘co-managing’ the TransPennine Express and Northern franchises with the Department for Transport, having had input into the franchise even before it was put on a statutory basis.
A result of this was the Secretary of State’s decision to authorise the procurement of new rolling stock, which will increase capacity on the Manchester-Leeds ‘corridor’ from 850 seats/hr to 2,000 seats/hr in December 2019.
Mr White said that looking to the medium term, the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, was committed to the trans-Pennine route upgrade, adding that while the scope of the works is still to be confirmed, the focus is on the route from York and Selby to Leeds and Manchester — and more than trebling current capacity levels.
The long-term vision — branded Northern Powerhouse Rail — would see a wider programme of upgrades to provide a network of more frequent, faster and longer trains linking the North’s main cities.
Mr White emphasised that the focus is on developing a network to serve the ‘polycentric region’, not merely on getting more people into Leeds and Manchester.
“The aim is to vastly increase the number of people within a ‘reasonable’ 1hr commuting time from multiple cities, which TfN envisages could create an extra 850,000 jobs.”
He also said TfN was currently “working at breakneck speed” to prepare a high-level plan for the cost, scope and business case for Northern Powerhouse Rail, which will be submitted to the Secretary of State at the end of this year.