Transport Insights

Labour, to its credit, is cracking on with the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), filling gaps left by the Tories, but looks like it may be falling into the Tory habit of making unfunded promises when it comes to Northern Powerhouse Rail.

A couple of weeks ago ministers and Network Rail announced that the latest stretch of the TRU, between Church Fenton and York, had been completed on time and on budget, allowing an electrified passenger train to run between the two.

Network Rail said:

This achievement means that 25% of the 70-mile Transpennine main line is now electrified, laying the foundations for a faster, greener and more reliable railway between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York once complete.

It is an achievement but means that TransPennine Express will continue to run (mainly) bi-mode Nova 1 (class 802) trains along the route, running on diesel for the 75% that is not electrified, and carrying both diesel engines and electric motors, which is hardly efficient or environmentally beneficial.

On the funding front, the Department for Transport calls the TRU an £11bn programme, while Network Rail calls it £10.7bn. The latter figure does appear to be both accurate and fully funded, comprising the £7.3bn of funding that the infrastructure operator said had been approved by March with the £3.5bn announced in the Spending Review.

Three years ago, the then transport secretary Grant Shapps – possibly the biggest charlatan ever to hold the post – pledged to meet the then estimated £9bn cost of the TRU, but I pointed out that the money had not actually been put in place.

This was a trick that the Tories played over and over again towards the end of their time in power.

Having put its money where its mouth is on the TRU front, Labour now seems to be spinning a line over support for the larger Northern Powerhouse Rail project.

In her spending review speech Rachel Reeves also said:

in the coming weeks I will set out this government’s plans to take forward our ambitions for Northern Powerhouse Rail

which is well short of a commitment to do anything anytime soon.

The Guardian reported this month that:

Keir Starmer is to formally revive Northern Powerhouse Rail this autumn with an announcement expected before the Labour conference…

But the gist of the article is that it would be very complicated and that a key component, reviving HS2 between Crewe and Manchester, cannot be afforded without private finance. It looks like any announcement will be largely a political rather than a serious one:

Government advisers are planning to time the announcement before Labour conference on 28 September, with the aim of boosting the morale of backbenchers after a series of damaging U-turns.