Preparation work on delivering a new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester is 'advancing', with updated funding meaning project planners can 'get on with it', according to the head of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
In terms of timings, the majority of the long-term plan will come together through the 2030s and into the 2040s, but development work is expected to take place much sooner.
What is Northern Powerhouse Rail?
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is a plan to link up the cities and towns of the north through new and significantly upgraded rail lines. The new lines would begin in Liverpool and travel across the North, linking up cities like Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and continuing all the way to Hull.
In January, the Liverpool ECHO reported that the new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester is part of a huge £45bn plan described as "the biggest transformation to travel in the north in a generation". The government announced that it is backing a large-scale upgrade of rail lines across the north of England.
Funding and phases
A funding cap for the project has been set at £45bn, with £1.1bn allocated over the current Spending Review period for the first stage of the plan. This will allow development and design work to progress and enable the creation of a delivery plan, which will include timings.
The project will be carried out in three phases. The first phase of the programme will deliver improved connections between Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds and York and Leeds and Bradford.
This will be followed by the creation of a new route between Liverpool and Manchester, running via Manchester Airport and Warrington.
Finally, improved connections will be formed across the Pennines between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York, with regular services running onward to Newcastle, via Darlington and Durham, Hill and Chester for North Wales connections.
Political backing
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram has been a key voice calling for the implementation of Northern Powerhouse Rail for many years, and was praised earlier today (September 28) by Northern Powerhouse Chief Executive, Henri Murison, citing him as one of the Mayors advancing a joined-up-thinking approach, and cognisant of the benefits to the north of England as a whole.
Mr Murison was part of a panel group at the Labour Conference, there to discuss transport connectivity in northern cities.
Responding to a question about the Liverpool to Manchester rail line, he told us that this particular phase of the project is crucially important, but is also part of a wider-approach to improved transport across the north.
Mr Murison said: "Liverpool to Manchester is the second phase, and there's loads of stuff in the middle that's left to the end of the programme, where a lot of the economic benefit is, because actually going to get a train from Liverpool across to Yorkshire, you've got to build some new lines between the northwest and Yorkshire."
He added: "Something that happens in one place often benefits someone 100 miles away. That's how this stuff works.
"In terms of the specifics of where it (Liverpool to Manchester line) is up to, I think the reality is the government, through the mechanisms and the governance they've set up, has allocated the development funding to get on with it.
"So the work that is being done, particularly on the new lines that will be needed, is advancing quite quickly."
