
Sub-national transport body, Transport for the North (TfN), has revealed further benefits to the region should the government move forward with the organisation’s recommendations to deliver an East-West high-speed rail link across the region, dubbed Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Modelling by TfN has identified that the improved intercity connectivity could mean 50% more people are put within a two-hour journey of some parts of the North of England. Analysis has for the first time gone into more detail about how smaller towns and cities in the region could benefit from improved rail links outside of the main economic centres of Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.
In Greater Manchester, TfN estimate that moving forward with Northern Powerhouse Rail could deliver a £3.4 billion boost to the city-region economy by 2040, and create up to 100,000 new jobs in the same period. The boost to intercity capacity on the rail network would also alleviate congestion on Greater Manchester’s railways, and reduce conflict between freight and passenger services.
Manchester Airport would also be set to benefit further: on top of its planned link with HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail would bring 4.3 million people within a 90 minute journey of the North’s largest international airport.
Tim Wood, Northern Powerhouse Rail Director at Transport for the North, said:
“Northern Powerhouse Rail is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the region’s railway and radically enhance connectivity between the North’s communities, creating jobs and boosting the Northern economy for decades to come.
“The statistics show that the programme will bring people and business across the region closer together, through a metro-style, high-speed, electrified railway, opening up opportunity and rocket-boosting regional economic growth.”
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, passenger numbers on rail services in the region have recovered strongly, with TfN arguing that there remains a need to address capacity challenges in the region as part of plans to build back better. Tim Wood added:
“We hope that the significant body of evidence, jointly created with the Department for Transport, will be reflected in an ambitious commitment to the North in the Integrated Rail Plan, alongside a clearly defined role for Transport for the North in delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
“The choices made may well define our region’s outcomes for the next century, that is how important this is. The sooner we have clarity on rail investment, the sooner we can press on with delivery for the Northern public.”