The ‘biggest ever public investment in Britain’s rail network’ was announced by the Government last month, with £96 billion aimed at delivering ‘faster and better journeys to more people across the North and the Midlands, similar to, or more quickly than under earlier plans’.
The Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will ‘transform both east to west and north to south links, building three new high-speed lines, improving rail services to and between the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West’.
The new plans, using a mixture of new-build high-speed line and upgraded conventional lines, were drawn up after it became clear that the full HS2 and NPR (Northern Powerhouse Rail) schemes as originally proposed would have cost up to £185 billion and not entered service until the early to mid-2040s.
The IRP will see, among other things: NPR connect Leeds and Manchester in 33min, down from 55min now; HS2 East run direct from central Nottingham to Birmingham in 26min (down from 1hr 14min now) and from central Nottingham to London in 57min (HS2 will also run from London to Sheffield in 1hr 27min). Meanwhile, HS2 West will run from London to Manchester in 1hr 11min and from Birmingham to Manchester in 41 to 51min, compared to 86min today.
IRP also says that to most destinations on the HS2 and NPR core routes, both from London and across the Pennines, journey times will be the same as, similar to or shorter than the previous proposals — with improvements being delivered for communities across the Midlands and North up to 10 years sooner and to more places. Capacity on key routes will also double or treble under the plans.
Under earlier plans, smaller towns on existing main lines such as Doncaster, Grantham, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Leicester would have seen little improvement, and in some cases even their services cut back. The IRP will ‘protect and improve’ these crucial links and will deliver improvements with far less disruption to local communities.
Furthermore, the IRP fully electrifies and upgrades two diesel main lines — the Midlands Main Line and the Transpennine Main Line; it also upgrades a third main line — the East Coast — with higher speeds, power improvements and digital signalling.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Our plan is ambitious, deliverable and backed by the largest single Government investment ever made in our rail network. It will deliver punctual, frequent and reliable journeys for everyone, wherever they live. Significant improvements will be delivered rapidly, bringing communities closer together, creating jobs and making places more attractive to business, and in doing so, rebalancing opportunity across the country.
“Our plans go above and beyond the initial ambitions of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail by delivering benefits for communities no matter their size, right across the North and Midlands — up to 10 to 15 years earlier.”
Commenting on the IRP, Matthew Fell — the CBI’s chief policy director — said: “High-quality infrastructure is fundamental to rising living standards and ‘levelling up’ the country. The Integrated Rail Plan is a significant investment that will go some way towards modernising our ageing rail networks and can be delivered at pace.
“That said, businesses across the Midlands and Northern England will be justifiably disappointed to see the goalposts have moved at the eleventh hour and concerned that some of the areas most sorely in need of development will lose out as a result of the scaled-back plans.”