Greater Manchester’s senior politicians, business leaders and economic experts were today joined by Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry MP to launch the region’s ambitions for high speed rail and the crucial part it will play in stimulating growth and opportunity across the north.
The strategy – ‘The stops are just the start’ – details how HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) will deliver new jobs, new homes and new opportunities for Greater Manchester at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse, helping unlock the untapped growth potential within the north of England.
It also stresses the importance for Manchester Piccadilly to ‘build it once and build it right’ – maximising benefits and minimising disruption by turning the station, and a new station at Manchester Airport, into true integrated transport hubs that link international, national, regional and local services.
The strategy focuses on four key areas, designed to support the economic growth potential of both HS2 and NPR:
• station design and infrastructure;
• improved transport connectivity;
• regeneration of land around the stations; and,
• investment in people, skills and employability.
Key aspirations include:
• Improving journey times and capacity between the major northern cities and their connections to London. Northern Powerhouse Rail will connect Manchester to Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield in around 30 mins and to Newcastle and Hull in under 90 mins. This will enable them to operate as a single economic unit that can function as much more than the sum of its parts. This dramatically improved connectivity is fundamental to realising the north of England’s untapped potential and rebalancing the national economy
• The area around the re-developed Manchester Piccadilly is expected to provide 40,000 new and sustainable jobs, 13,000 new homes and close to a million square metres of commercial development
• Locally to Manchester Airport it is expected that 20,000 new jobs will be created in the next ten years
• The new Manchester Airport rail station will be integrated into the £1bn redevelopment of Terminal 2
You can read the full report here
You can read the summary report here.
Read the full new release for more information.