Northern Powerhouse Rail construction start at least 'several years away'

Construction of a proposed railway linking northern cities east-west across the Pennines will not start for a least “several years”, the government’s infrastructure watchdog has said.

John Armitt, chair of National Infrastructure Commission, told MPs that the government needed to take decisions before even prepatory work could begin.

The railway, which was first proposed by George Osborne nearly six years ago, is proposed to link Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford.

In its time it has been known by various names including HS3, Crossrail for the North, Northern Powerhouse Rail and most recently dubbed “High Speed North” by Boris Johnson’s government.

Continuing with at least part of the project between Manchester and Leeds was one of Mr Johnson’s first announcements as prime minister, though little actual progress has been made.

“Northern Powerhouse Rail hasn’t been approved yet, Northern Powerhouse Rail hasn’t even been designed in any sort of detail yet. Northern Powerhouse Rail have asked government for £25 million to get on with working up the outline scheme that they want to do,” Sir John told the Commons transport select committee.

“Those are the sort of thing that the government can do to get things moving because in the first place it’s not about digging holes, it’s actually about doing lots of environmental work assessments, design, consultation, land acquisition. There’s several years of work that will take place on Northern Powerhouse Rail before you can start digging holes.”

The scheme is backed by northern cities and will share some infrastructure with HS2, the north-south high speed railway whose construction was green-lit by the government last week.

Sir John said the best way the government could ensure there was capacity to build multiple schemes at one was to “give more certainty to its long-term plans and long-term strategy” so that contractors would feel able to invest long-term in their capabilities.

The chair of the Commission, which is conducting a review into phase two of HS2 past Birmingham into Manchester and Leeds, said the construction of new lines was a good idea.

“There is a limit to how long we can put sellotape and sticky stuff which was laid down nearly 200 years ago,” he said.

“Occasionally you need to build new; the most reliable railway we have in this country is the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, or as it’s called these days High Speed 1.

“We have a capacity constraint on the West Coast Mainline which is one of the significant, the main driver really for HS2. It’s called High Speed 2 but frankly it’s more capacity to the north. Rail will continue to grow, the demand is there.”

He warned critics of the project that it was difficult to accurately draw up an economic business case for the project as it would involve predicting the future.

“We’re talking about a project that is going to be beneficial to the country for the next 75 years at least and forecasting how those long-term socioeconomic benefits will play out is difficult enough for anyone. I think occasionally you need to say ‘this looks a sensible thing to do, so let’s go ahead’,” he said.

Sir John suggestions he did not expect his review to trim any stations or branches of HS2, telling MPs that “what I’ve heard from the prime minister and government which is that in principle they expect phase 2b [past Birmingham] to go ahead”.

He said the inquiry was “more about phasing and sequencing” of projects and that on whether the western or eastern leg would proceed it was  “taking those as given”.

Mark Thurston, the chief executive of the HS2 project, was also appearing in front of the committee and was asked about other the current coronavirus pandemic would slow down its delivery.

“We don’t know yet, frankly. None of us know quite how Covid-19 will play out this year,” he said, adding: “It’s too early for us to understand the full impact of the pandemic.”

HS2 says work has continued on the project during the pandemic with social distancing introduced at worksites where it can be carried out safely.

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk