[Another view on the recent announcements regarding the Transpennine Route Upgrade and the new “Northern Transport Acceleration Council”, from the Manchester Evening News (Jennifer Williams), 23rd July 2020]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As \u00a3600m is announced for the\ndelayed Manchester to Leeds upgrade, Tory ministers and northern Labour leaders\nboth now have an interest in getting things moving<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After months of open warfare\nbetween central and local government over the pandemic response, there is one\narea in which the mood music is currently a little sweeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On northern rail projects,\ntraditionally the subject of much fractious political disagreement between\nleaders here and those calling the shots in London, the tone has shifted and\nthe pace of ministerial progress, according to Andy Burnham today, has\nseen a ‘gear change\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2019, the background noise\nwas not so soothing. Jake Berry, Northern Powerhouse minister at the time,\nseemed to make a habit of actively irritating local politicians – such as when\nhe blamed them for the continued existence of Northern Rail\u2019s franchise, even\nthough behind the scenes they had been lobbying for it to be nationalised for\nmonths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Equally the consensus on Chris\nGrayling\u2019s tenure as transport secretary doesn\u2019t really need repeating,\nalthough many within local government circles are more than prepared to\nreiterate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For much of last year and the\nyear before, Labour\u2019s Andy Burnham spent a considerable amount of time\nattacking the government for failing to take action on northern transport woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So after years of\nfrustration over delays, excuses, timetable failures, drifting\nelectrification and creaking rail corridors, it was unclear where the\nrhetoric from a new Tory leadership last summer would lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been much water under\nthe bridge since then. With ministers conscious some evidence of \u2018levelling up\u2019\nnow needs to be delivered in former ‘red wall’ seats within four years, and\nwith leaders here as keen as ever to finally see some progress, the tone has\nbecome more conciliatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the current transport\nsecretary Grant Shapps, writing\nfor Conservative Home today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPolitically, we are the odd couple – hardly natural allies,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he writes of his relationship with Burnham, before pressing the need to break the ‘circular argument’ that continually sees transport cash focused on London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut we share a desire to rectify this transport deficit, and get things moving. This is practical politics, getting together to solve problems that do not discriminate when it comes to party affiliation. But this emphasis on delivery will work for Conservative MPs across the North, too. Particularly those who helped to demolish the red wall and who now occupy marginals in which expectations are high.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Breaking the Whitehall obsession\nwith self-reinforcing investment in the south east was, party politically\nspeaking, at one time a Labour argument. But the 2019 election result –\nprecipitated by Brexit – changed the rules. Politicians on both sides of the\nparty divide now have reason to expound it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Announcing nearly \u00a3589m extra\ntowards the upgrade of the Transpennine route, Shapps noted Greater\nManchester’s Labour mayor \u2018was generous in his praise for these initial steps\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best aspect of this government is its willingness to experiment, not only with solutions to problems that affect us all, but in relationships with others who may not fully share our beliefs,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPragmatism must be our ideology. Conservatives are best when they tackle problems in a rational, practical way. It\u2019s what people expect of us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s quite a shift in tone\nfrom the days of Grayling. And he\u2019s right – Burnham was, today, very upbeat\nabout the latest investment. The Department for Transport press release on the\nannouncement featured a pretty fulsome quote from the mayor welcoming the new\ncash for Transpennine electrification, twin tracking and freight upgrades,\nalbeit stressing that this cannot be a substitute for Northern Powerhouse\nRail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese were all of the things we pressed them for,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he told the M.E.N. after a media opportunity with Shapps this morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can\u2019t go out there pressing them and then when they do it, find another reason to criticise them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The working relationship is \u2018very different with this transport secretary than the last\u2019, he conceded, adding: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no need to find reasons to disagree with him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Insiders say the two get on\npretty well personally, which doesn\u2019t do any harm. Meanwhile Shapps is viewed\nas far less partisan or ideological than either Berry or Grayling. But a\nthawing of relations should come as no great surprise for other reasons too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The interests of both\npoliticians now align pretty neatly. For Andy Burnham, despite his role not\nactually including the railways, campaigning on the north\u2019s crippled network\nhas become a hallmark of his first term. So far he has been able – partly\nthrough deft political choreography – to claim credit for forcing the renationalisation\nof the failing Northern Rail franchise and regularly notes that transport is\nthe issue people contact him about the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the government\u2019s side, the\nneed to enact change quickly is an imperative. Both before and after the\ngeneral election, political advisors in London were on the eye out for projects\nthat could be delivered swiftly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step up the new \u2018northern\ntransport acceleration council\u2019 announced today, a body focused on delivery\nthat will comprise northern leaders promised a hotline into Grant Shapps as\nchair. The first phase of the Transpennine upgrade could be one of the projects\ncompleted within this Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One senior local figure notes we\u2019ve been here before, however. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat he\u2019s announced gets announced on a regular basis and has been announced repeatedly over the last eight years,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n they note dryly, a reference to years of promises by government stretching back to George Osborne\u2019s days in the Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, equally, the government itself\nwants – and needs – to get things delivered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do think there\u2019s a new tone from government of frustration,\u201d they add. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s always aimed in the right places, because I don\u2019t think they are well served by the Department for Transport or Network Rail. But there is a frustration that the progress on the ground isn\u2019t happening and there\u2019s now a real determination to change that. If that is the case, then that\u2019s got to be relatively good news.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Many questions remain. Today\u2019s\n\u00a3600m is only for the first phase of the Transpennine upgrade and when asked by\nthe M.E.N. about the timescale for the wider project, the transport secretary\ntoday admitted it won\u2019t be done before the next election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have the whole project completed in the 2020s but this part of it completed within this Parliament, so before 2024,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So theoretically, it could be\nthe best part of a decade before this work – originally slated for the end of\n2022 – is finished?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d he admitted, before\ndistancing this latest plan from the scheme tabled by Chris Grayling, which\nnever got done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn terms of what we\u2019re now proposing is I think a bigger deal than\u2019s been on the cards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a \u00a33bn programme up to now for partial electrification with some additional bits and pieces…but I think we\u2019re very likely to be saying \u2018actually, we should be doing this job properly\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be electrifying throughout and we should get journey times down to 30 minutes, which we\u2019re a long way from at the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd the package we\u2019ve described up until now doesn\u2019t get us there. So this is upping the game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The full details of what will\nand will not be funded won’t surface until the end of the year, however, as part\nof the government’s ‘integrated rail plan’, which will also cover northern\nhigh-speed links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being transport secretary has to\nbe one of the more enjoyable jobs in government at the moment, so it is perhaps\nno wonder he\u2019s chipper. Chequebooks are being opened for his department in the\nwake of repeated promises of increased capital spending, all the way from 2019\nmanifesto to March Budget to post-lockdown relaunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Improvements to the Castlefield\nrail bottleneck could fall into the bracket of first-term investment too,\nalthough at present that has merely been given a \u00a310m pot to draw up a plan.\nShapps seemed to admit today that the result, which comes after endless reviews\nof previous plans, won\u2019t necessarily include long-promised extra platforms at\nPiccadilly Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giving Piccadilly new platforms\nat 15 and 16 had \u2018almost become a totemic thing\u2019 where delayed upgrades are\nconcerned, he said, but added: \u201cI don\u2019t really care how we resolve this. I just\nwant it fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI asked some good people to work out what needs to be done if we are to sort out the corridor and they proposed that \u00a310m would help see it through. And we\u2019ll see what they come out the other end with.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The plan so far seems to involve\nre-routing some services that currently run through Piccadilly\u2019s desperately\ncramped platforms 13 and 14 – including pan-northern services – through\nVictoria instead. Infrastructure improvements would still also be needed,\nincluding on junctions at Ordsall and Ardwick, as well as radical change to the\ntimetable in December next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaders here remain skeptical\nabout this, particularly given the number of previous solutions lying around in\nWhitehall. They still believe in a need to run longer trains through\nPiccadilly, for example, while one insider points out that the trains run by\nvarious operators have doors in different places, adding a basic complication\nto the logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not careful, you end up spending more than you would have done just doing 15 and 16,\u201d they note.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Burnham is unsure too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m less confident about that,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he told the M.E.N. of whether the latest plan would work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have frustrations that a scheme that\u2019s been worked up over the years again is being abandoned, seemingly in favour of an alternative, which we haven\u2019t yet details of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s my position, [Manchester council leader] Sir Richard Leese\u2019s position, Greater Manchester\u2019s position, that 15 and 16 should be in the scheme. They\u2019ve got a short time from here to tell us something is better. They\u2019ve got a short window.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile rail infrastructure is\nonly one part of the transport equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In towns and cities across the\nnorth it will be local public transport that makes the biggest difference to\nthe lives of most people, particularly buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, as one transport\nfigure says, buses are \u2018driving around carrying fresh air\u2019 due to the Covid-19\ncrisis and bailout packages for many local transport networks – including the\nMetrolink – run out next month, with no indication as to what will happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Equally, whether the increasingly\npragmatic view being taken in Greater Manchester is shared in other northern\ncommunities is another question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everywhere has a mayor with\nthe kind of platform or connections enjoyed by Burnham, while other areas have\nworries about other drifting projects – such as the threat to HS2’s eastern\nleg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is certainly\nwidespread relief at no longer having to deal with Shapps\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly an improvement from Grayling,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n says one local official elsewhere of the current situation, while another notes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s like night and day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Given that pragmatic\nrelationships with Tory governments have been a longstanding feature of Greater\nManchester\u2019s approach, there is now a calculation that it\u2019s at least worth a\ngo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both sides will have an eye to take credit for progress at the other end, but that may just be how things end up getting done. As one official says of pragmatism over naked partisanship: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone knows everyone else is playing the game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/political-peace-broken-out-over-18652337<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Another view on the recent announcements regarding the Transpennine Route Upgrade and the new “Northern Transport Acceleration Council”, from the Manchester Evening News (Jennifer Williams), 23rd July 2020] As \u00a3600m is announced for the delayed Manchester to Leeds upgrade, Tory … Continue reading