Rishi Sunak claims new Liverpool trains will happen after HS2 axe

The Prime Minister has claimed new links between Liverpool and Manchester will go ahead after he scrapped the northern leg of HS2.

After scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2^[1], Rishi Sunak has pledged £36bn to fund transport projects in the North and Midlands instead as part of a “Network North” scheme. The government said the £12bn to improve the link between Liverpool and Manchester is in addition to the £36bn and it will allow for the creation of “Northern Powerhouse Rail” (NPR).

NPR was promised in the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto as high-speed rail between Northern locations. Around 50 miles were initially designed to use track shared with HS2 but NPR plans were subsequently downgraded.

According to the government, Network North now aims to ‘transform British transport’ by funding projects to connect areas within the North and Midlands, rather than linking to HS2. However, Northern leaders have said that improvements in rail services in the region, such as NPR, depend on the infrastructure^[4] that was meant to be provided by HS2 being developed all the way to Manchester.

Under Network North, the Department for Transport has said that the North West will benefit from funding to the tune of £19.8bn – not including the Liverpool to Manchester link.

In our region, this will include around £1bn for the Liverpool City Region^[5] from the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) 2 budget, plus a further £600 million on top. Much of the funding in the Network North package is for projects in and around Greater Manchester, as well as rural counties across the north and midlands.

Money has also been pledged to support new ticketing systems and fix potholes across the North, as well as a new link road between the M62 and the M60.

As he opened Merseyrail’s new Headbolt Lane^[6] station on Thursday (October 5), Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram^[7] told the ECHO^[8]: “Straight from this, which is a fantastic and very proud day for me and the team who have put so much time and effort into getting this station opened, we’ll be going back and looking at some of the detail now about what some of those announcements from the Prime Minister mean for our area.

“We were never getting onto HS2 directly, it was never coming to Liverpool, but what people don’t understand is that HS2 infrastructure to Manchester was our connectivity to Northern Powerhouse Rail from Liverpool onto that, then right across the country.

“Now we don’t know what the plans are by the government and we hear massive figures being thrown around about pounds here and there, what we want to know is what does that actually mean for our area?”

The Liverpool Daily Post newsletter delves into the biggest stories on Merseyside^[9]

References

1. ^{^} scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Scrapping HS2’s northern leg is bad news for anyone who gets train from Lime Street (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Rishi Sunak cancels northern leg of HS2 in conference speech (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Northern leaders have said that improvements in rail services in the region, such as NPR, depend on the infrastructure (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
5. ^{^} Liverpool City Region (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
6. ^{^} he opened Merseyrail’s new Headbolt Lane (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
7. ^{^} Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
8. ^{^} ECHO (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
9. ^{^} The Liverpool Daily Post newsletter delves into the biggest stories on Merseyside (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)