Boris Johnson to pledge funding for high-speed rail route between Leeds and Manchester
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Boris Johnson is expected to pledge to fund a new high-speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester during a speech in the latter, later today.
He will give his backing to the trans-Pennine transport link to “turbo-charge the economy”.
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It is the newly-appointed Prime Minister’s second pledge in as many days after yesterday he promised to begin recruiting 20,000 new police officers “within weeks”.
The plans would see journey times across the 36-mile route cut from 50 minutes to under 30, with full details to be published in the autumn following a HS2 review.
The plans are part of Johnson’s wider commitment to deliver a high-speed railway link across the north of England, costing around £39bn.
The previous regime supported the project but did not commit too investing in it.
It was a concept initially announced by George Osborne during his time as chancellor in 2014.
However, Labour shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said the project had been “announced time and time again by the Conservatives”.
“With Boris Johnson’s staggering failure to build a bridge across the Thames and an estuary airport I’m not confident he’ll be able to deliver better train services between Leeds and Manchester,” he added.
During his speech, Johnson is expected to say he is committed to “rebalance power, growth and productivity across the UK” and pledge to “improve the unglamorous local services which people use every day”.
It’s a move welcomed by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who said improving current transport “is more important than a railway line that might be built in 15 or 20 years”.
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“If you asked me to prioritise, I would say prioritise this next decade but I don’t think we should be asked to prioritise because London has never been asked to do that,” he told the BBC.
“We should have new rail infrastructure alongside support for our transport system now.”