“Northern Powerhouse promises will be delivered” – Grant Shapps

Posted on January 12, 2021 by admin

As we have seen promises being made, then quietly abandoned, then re-announced several times over the years, we have become just a little bit cynical about whether the government intends to deliver on its past commitments.

The Transpennine Route Upgrade, announced in 2011 (and re-announced in 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019 & 2020) is the classic example of this.

Nearly 10 years after it was first announced, and two years after it was supposed to be complete and operational, most of it is still awaiting approval.

We are yet to see the accelerated decision-making.

Words are great (the late great Albus Dumbledore described them as our greatest source of magic), but it is actions that are needed.

Part of article in the Yorkshire Post, 11th January 2021, by Grant Shapps, follows.
Grant Shapps is the Transport Secretary and Northern Powerhouse Minister.

As Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse, I want to reassure readers that our commitment to levelling up the North remains undimmed. It is front and centre of our infrastructure plans.

In December, for example, I chaired the second full meeting of the Northern Transport Acceleration Council (NTAC).

The council has been created to unblock barriers and speed up delivery of transport projects.

Indeed, the list of transport schemes NTAC will consider is now clear, so the next task is to select the projects it will accelerate first.

A new platform has been unveiled at Leeds station after final work was completed over the festive period. Hundreds of workers gave up Christmas to work on overhead lines, tracks and signalling, and finish the project for the New Year.

The £161m Platform 0 will allow trains to enter and leave Leeds station much more easily, boosting capacity and punctuality.

While it won’t come into full use until May – when the new timetable is introduced – it will be available for trains to use during times of disruption, minimising delays for passengers.

We’ll soon be announcing a new bus strategy to improve journeys across the North, and provide communities with services that meet their specific needs.

We’ll be moving forward with major infrastructure schemes like the Trans-Pennine rail upgrade and HS2, and with our long-term £4.2bn Intracity Fund, which will deliver huge benefits for urban transport in the North.

We’ll be working to restore passenger services on the Northumberland Line for the first time since 1964, when they fell victim to the Beeching cuts.

And we’ll continue pressing ahead with an ambitious Northern roads programme, tackling congestion and transforming capacity on key routes like the A19 and A66.

That means delivering on one of the fundamental pledges in our manifesto: making the Northern Powerhouse an industrious, inventive and vibrant reality.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/northern-powerhouse-promises-will-be-delivered-grant-shapps-3091436

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Government told to end the cycle of broken promises on transport for Yorkshire

Posted on December 31, 2020 by admin

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has called on the Government to break the cycle of broken promises to the region and give certainty over future rail investment.

In a letter to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, the Combined Authority asks the Government to use its forthcoming Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands to make good its commitment to delivering the eastern leg of HS2 in full and on the same timescale as the western leg.

The Plan should also commit to delivering improved capacity around Leeds Station, the Transpennine line upgrade, Northern Powerhouse Rail in full including a new line between Leeds, Bradford City Centre and Manchester along with a programme of electrification of existing lines.

The letter rejects the findings of the National Infrastructure Commission’s recent Rail Needs Assessment as based on an “inconsistent and fundamentally flawed” approach and warns that following its recommendations could have serious economic consequences.

It says the National Infrastructure Commission’s approach creates an artificial choice between HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, ignores the role HS2 will play in improving connections between Yorkshire’s cities, fails to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail in full and does not address the capacity bottlenecks around Leeds Station which cause delays across the national rail network.

The letter further warns that continued uncertainty on HS2 will damage business confidence and blight development while doing nothing to accelerate delivery of other schemes which will take up to a decade to reach the same point. A clear decision would allow enabling works for the eastern leg of HS2 to begin in 2024.

The letter says:

“The Government has a choice to make, it can make a choice to tackle climate change, to unlock economic growth, to bridge the productivity gaps and to level up. Or the Government can once again leave our region and other authorities in the North behind.”

Letter demands end to broken promises on transport investment – Combined Authority | Unlocking potential, accelerating growth (westyorks-ca.gov.uk)

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Welcome for new climate goals: campaigners say now’s time to start rail electrification… 

Posted on December 30, 2020 by admin
  • and call on MPs to convince the Treasury

Rail campaigners have the recent announcement by the Prime Minister of enhanced targets for greenhouse gas reductions, to be a 68% cut by 2030, but now call for action. Local groups say this is an ideal moment to start a programme of railway electrification. Network Rail’s traction decarbonisation network strategy (TDNS) published in September recommends the majority of at present diesel-only routes should be electrified. Local rail user groups supporting the Electric Railway Charter say that rail electrification will pay for itself through reduced costs for train operators as well as by ending rail carbon emissions, and call on MPs to press the Department for Transport and Treasury to give the go ahead.

Whilst hailing the new climate target, campaigners describe a “perfect storm” of issues, with progress frustrated:

  • Revelation last week that the Treasury autumn statement cuts £1bn from Network Rail’s 5-year enhancements budget, threatening improvements badly needed by passengers and freight customers. Rail users’ groups share the disappointment expressed by the Rail Industry Association at this cut (Rail Industry Association disappointed by news that rail enhancements budget reduced by £1 billion | Rail Business Daily)
  • Following Network Rail’s traction decarbonisation network strategy (TDNS), the urgent need for the Department for Transport to bring out its full decarbonisation strategy, and for the Treasury to agree to a rolling programme of rail electrification. Electrified railways have lower train operation costs compared with alternatives such as hydrogen power, diesels, or present “bi-modes” that still burn diesel. Electric trains are cheaper to buy, simpler and cheaper to maintain and more reliable, as well as cleaner and potentially zero-carbon. The call is for the Treasury to take a holistic approach with future cost savings paying for investment now. The rail industry has shown that a rolling programme, where skilled engineering teams are maintained as they move from project to project, could cut the costs of electrification by up to 50%. TDNS calls for only limited use of hydrogen trains mainly for more remote or less intensively used routes, or as an interim measure towards full electrification.
  • A tenth anniversary – continuing wait for enhancement projects that were promised years ago. The TransPennine Route upgrade (Manchester-Huddersfield-Leeds-York) was allocated £589M last July. A letter from the DfT says this will enable “design and development work”. Full electrification (on the back burner since 2017) is still only being considered, and “the most optimal approach” will be determined “by mid-2021”. That will be the tenth anniversary of announcement of the original TRU scheme which envisaged full electrification.
  • And a sixth anniversary. Next March it will be six years since the Northern Electrification Task Force published its report “Northern Sparks”. The task force was an all-party group chaired Andrew Jones MP (Harrogate) and recommended, just as a start, a five-year programme to electrify 12 initial routes. Top ranked on business, environmental and economic criteria was the Calder Valley Line, Leeds via Hebden Bridge to both Manchester and Preston.

Stephen Waring, Chair of Hadrag (The Halifax & District Rail Action Group) said:

“The new targets to cut greenhouse gases must be the cue to decarbonise transport as part of building back better after Covid. The most energy-efficient way of supplying energy to trains is by overhead wires. A rolling programme of electrification should pay for itself by cutting train operators’ costs. Electric trains are cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. Our route from Leeds to Manchester and Preston would follow naturally after the Huddersfield line. With lots of station stops, the high performance of electric traction will be a big boost.

“Network Rail’s decarbonisation strategy reinforces the conclusions of Northern Sparks five years ago: most lines need to be electrified.  We want Transport for the North, regional and local authorities and our MPs to keep up pressure on the Department for Transport and the Treasury.

David Hagerty of Stalybridge to Huddersfield Rail Users’ Group said:

“It is vital that the Transpennine Route Upgrade is not cancelled, scaled back or further delayed as a result of this cut to Network Rail’s budget. The promises made in 2011 need to be belatedly kept, including full electrification from Manchester to Leeds & York and also including full disabled access at stations like Marsden and Greenfield. Passengers and communities along the route should not be expected to wait indefinitely for vital improvements which should have been approved and implemented long ago.

We would expect all MPs along the route to be united in demanding that this scheme is approved and built in full as soon as practicable.”

Nina Smith, of Hebden Bridge, Chair of Upper Calder Valley Renaissance Sustainable Transport Group said:

“The climate emergency requires emergency measures from government. Railway electrification is central to decarbonising transport, and the UK lags behind much of Europe.

“The Treasury must fund a rolling programme of electrification starting with the trans-Pennine core route through Huddersfield and the Midland Main Line to Sheffield and Leeds, followed by the Calder Valley lines.

“No ifs, no buts, just get on with it.”

Richard Lysons, Chair of Friends of Littleborough Station added:

The Calder Valley Line desperately needs a clean, modern, “sociable” railway that serves the whole community and promotes wellbeing. The line has many uses: commuting; tourism; school, college and university student travel; shoppers; walking groups, and much, much more.

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Greenfield Rail Action Group – “Rail campaign group to continue their battle”

Posted on December 30, 2020 by admin

[from the Oldham Evening Chronicle, 14 December 2020]

Despite the pandemic, the campaigning Greenfield Rail Action Group (GRAG) have set an agenda to continue their battle for better services at Oldham’s only mainline rail station.

The group say since March travellers have been openly discouraged from travelling by public transport, with  working from home becoming the norm.  

The result is grossly overcrowded trains have given way to almost empty carriages where social distancing is easily achieved.

Mark Ashmore, Chair of the Group, said:

“Since its formation nearly 10 years ago the group has built meaningful relationships with providers, and these need to continue in order to maintain and improve the service at Greenfield station.”

At the virtual group meeting, they endorsed their aims:

1. The trans-Pennine line is the most important rail link between North-West England, Yorkshire and the North-East –  the long promised full electrification of the linethrough Greenfield needs urgent delivery if the levelling-up agenda of the government is to be achieved.

2. Continued liaison with the rail groups at Mossley, Marsden and Slaithwaite to ensure all the groups are working to the same agenda.

3. Continued liaison with the train operating companies, Trans-Pennine Express and Northern.

4. Continued campaigning for a half-hourly service throughout the day and restoration of the direct link to Manchester Victoria.

5. Continued liaison with Transport for Greater Manchester, Transport for the North and similar bodies.

6. Full disabled access at Greenfield Station.

7. Support Diggle residents campaigning for a new local station.

8. Cheaper train fares between West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester by removing the “tunnel tax” which massively increases cross-boundary fares.

9. Air Quality Control and Climate Change – as well as campaigning for electrification this includes improving connectivity between bus and train. Links worked well until earlier this year when Transport for Greater Manchester changed local bus routes, ending the connection timings at Greenfield station.

Oldham News | Main News | Rail campaign group to continue their battle – Oldham Chronicle (oldham-chronicle.co.uk)

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