Key railway electrification scheme to resume

THE Government has “unpaused” the electrification work on the TransPennine and Midland Mainline railways after receiving a new plan for the work from Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy.

The revised plan has promised to deliver “faster journey times and significantly more capacity between Manchester, Leeds and York”.

The upgrade is expected to provide capacity for six fast or semi-fast trains per hour, take up to 15 minutes off today’s journey time between Manchester and York and be complete by 2022.

When the work is finished, the intercity route from Liverpool to Newcastle, which takes in Manchester, Leeds and York, will be fully electrified.

“The temporary pause in the programme has given us the space to develop a better plan for passengers,” said Sir Peter Hendy.

“People can expect more services and faster journeys. We face some difficult challenges, and there is more work still to do, but the Secretary of State’s decision means we can now move forward with our plans to electrify TransPennine and Midland Mainline”.

Ongoing work was “paused” in June and this revised plan has been designed to deliver “key passenger benefits as quickly as possible”, and is broader in its scope that changing the power supply of the trains.

Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin said: “Connecting up the great cities of the north is at the heart of our plan to build a Northern Powerhouse. This government will see the job through and build a better, faster and more reliable railway for passengers in the north and Midlands.”

Network Rail will also restart work to electrify the Midland Mainline route north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby by 2019 and the line north of Kettering to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield by 2023.

Manchester Airports Group welcomed the announcement.

“It is vital that Government commits to improving rail journeys across the North, pushes ahead with high speed rail and treats the TransPennine improvements as a key first step in a longer term programme to accelerate growth across the region,” a spokesperson said.

“By reducing journey times and providing more capacity between Manchester, Leeds and York, TransPennine electrification will significantly improve connectively across the region, open up airport capacity and benefit the UK as a whole.”

The news was given a warm reception from other business leaders.

Damian Waters, CBI North West’s regional director said  the announcement “will give a real boost to local businesses”.

“However, it’s essential we see further detail in term of the timing and knock-on consequences for other projects in the pipeline,” he added.

Simon Allport,  senior partner at EY said: “This is welcome news for commuters, businesses and the Northern economy, and helps to return some momentum to the infrastructure plans behind the Northern Powerhouse vision.

“It’s important that these revised plans – which go beyond just changing trains’ power supply – are integrated with the wider strategy for Northern transport to ensure our future network is as efficient as it can be to deliver for our economy. It’s encouraging that the latest plans give additional passenger benefits around capacity and journey times.”

 Chris Hearld, KPMG’s North Region added: “Of course, electrification is a component of the package of transport investment required to build a Northern Powerhouse rather than an end in itself but this news certainly holds out the prospect that the Powerhouse could be back on track.”