“We believe that Northerners have had to put up with a second rate rail system for far too long, and we want a ‘turn-up-and-go railway’. No more faffing around with looking at the timetable before you go to the station.
“No more worrying if you miss your train, that you’re going to have to wait for an hour for the next one. We think that people in the north of England, in the northwest of England, deserve a service that people in London and the southeast of England get.”
Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, 22nd January 2026