Osborne and business leaders launch chorus of calls for high speed rail in North

Lobby groups representing thousands of business leaders in the North and former Chancellor George Osborne are urging the Government to commit to spending on high speed rail projects in the North.

Business North has voiced concern about reports on the downgrading of investment in northern rail and called on Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to “commit to reversing the under-investment in northern infrastructure”.

Signatories include Chris Hearld, chairman of Business North and KPMG’s northern region, Henrietta Jowitt, deputy director of the CBI business lobby group, and Steven Underwood, chief executive of developer and logistics group Peel.

It has been submitted alongside a 70,000-name petition organised by think-tank IPPR North, which says £59bn more has been spent on transport in London and the South East over the past decade than in the North.

Meanwhile, former Tatton MP Osborne – the architect of the Northern Powerhouse – has written an article in the Financial Times calling for the Government to build high-speed rail lines across the north of England, from Liverpool to Hull, HS3, linking up with HS2.

Osborne, who also leads the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said Prime Minister Theresa May should earmark funding for “Northern Powerhouse rail”, a new fast line from Liverpool to Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle costing up to £30bn which would link to HS2, the planned fast line from London.

“There is no geographical reason why this cannot happen,” he wrote. “The distance between Manchester and Leeds is shorter than the length of the Central line on the London Underground.

“The Northern Powerhouse Rail fits with [Theresa] May’s stated objective of building an economy that works for everyone.”

Osborne said plans for HS3 “will not be cheap”, with some estimates for the Pennine construction reaching £7bn.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport told the BBC that the government had already made a commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail, giving £60m to Transport for the North to develop plans .

“[We] look forward to working with them once proposals are submitted later this year,” it said

Chief executive of Manchester-based commercial property company Bruntwood, Chris Oglesby, who sits on the board of the NPP said: “Investment in rail improvements in the North is an economic imperative not simply for the North but the UK as a whole.

“Connecting the cities properly into a single economy with a large talented labour market will help them compete effectively on the global stage, working to their collective strengths and delivering more overall. For us this is all part of making our great city regions even greater.”

Grayling has previously said it was too difficult to upgrade parts of the 19th-century Leeds-Manchester section of the east-west line.

Instead, a review could back “bimode” trains that are powered from electric cabling but switch to diesel engines when necessary.

Grayling said these offered the same time savings and capacity increases as electric trains.

But experts say they are heavier, more expensive to run and less reliable. Grayling also cancelled electrification of the line from Kettering to Sheffield, expected by 2023, along with the Oxenholme to Windermere and Cardiff to Swansea routes.

Several chambers of commerce have also signed the letters or contacted ministers.

The North East chamber has invited Grayling to visit the region. It told him the “huge” transport funding imbalance has a “severe and limiting” effect on the regional economy. It was vital to have the “missing piece” on a stretch of electrified railway from Newcastle to Liverpool.

Business leaders and politicians including Greater Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham will meet on tomorrow (Wednesday, August 23) in Leeds to make the case for fresh investment.

The Transport Department has said it would take a decision next year on trans-Pennine electrification.