Graham, Tom and Ian

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Government Northern Powerhouse announcement – it’s a start

by Lib Dem team on 11 August, 2015

The Conservative government have today announced a £13 billion investment in road and rail transport across the North of England. It’s not new (all the schemes have been around for a while and most have already been formerly announced) but in a quiet August it’s a repackaging that should generate a few headlines and, ministers will hope, head off “Northern Powercut” talk.

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The Northern Powerhouse idea, let’s remember, is about linking together our northern cities to make one bigger virtual city where someone can, for example, sensibly live in Liverpool and work in Leeds. That size is needed to attract the sort of investment and opportunities that currently all go to London, or abroad. It’s the right thing to do and it needs to happen.

£13 billion sounds like a lot of money, even if it’s not new, and to be fair it is a lot. But, in case anyone is tempted to think the gap between transport spending in London and elsewhere is narrowing, bear in mind that one London project – Crossrail – will end up costing more than £14 billion and Crossrail 2 could be anything up to £30 billion. We are very much still the poor relation to London.

How will it help us in Stockport? Depends how far you travel, of course, but the local schemes are:

  • Two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly to allow more trains to run through the station and directly onto other destinations.
  • The long-awaited Ordsall Chord will connect up the main Manchester stations, giving more flexibility on routes and reducing bottlenecks.
  • Faster, more frequent services on Manchester-Sheffield and Manchester-Leeds-York
  • Fourth platform and other improvements already completed at Manchester Airport station
  • In addition to the smart motorway upgrade on the M60 J8 to 18, similar smart motorway plans are in place for the south-east portion of the M60. Exactly which portions that includes is not yet clear.
  • Mottram Moor Link Road – a new dual-carriageway from the M57 roundabout to a new junction at the A57(T)* Mottram Moor. There will also be a new single-carriageway from the A57 at Mottram Moor to the A57 at Brookfield, bypassing the existing A628/A57 junction.

When will all this happen? We don’t know yet, though most of the projects are already in the pipeline and underway – this is a packaging exercise rather than any genuinely new announcements, remember. We’ll keep you informed.

* The site says A58(T) but that looks to be a typo.

   3 Comments

3 Responses

  1. Adrian Arnold says:

    In regard to this statement..

    Yes, platform 4 at Manchester Airport railway station has been built but, as yet, it is not in operation for passenger services.
    This is also affecting the Metrolink, who can only use 1 platform, as the shared platform has NOT been handed over for use.

    Due to the topography, and the route followed by the Manchester – Leeds – York rail corridor, it is not viable to increase operating speeds on the majority of the route. The only way to deal with this is to electrify the route (now postponed), giving quicker acceleration times through new rolling stock.

    The ‘Ordsall Chord’ has not been finalised, due to objections through Historic grounds re the area that will require remodelling. Also, platforms 15 & 16 are only subject to the Chord going ahead.

    The construction of the so called ‘Smart Motorway’ is causing more problems than it will cure. Due to the amount of traffic using it, the M60 was working as well as it possibly could, even under the ‘new’ system being constructed. Yet another waste of funds that could be redirected elsewhere.

  2. Arthur Lampkin says:

    Just another sticking plaster.

  3. Alan Gent says:

    The usual Tory smoke and mirrors, as Iain says, not even new money and the previous promise of £35 bn now frozen (read scrapped and hope they forget).
    Once again London gets pots of money, just another step along the road to becoming ‘Monaco’, with the rest of the UK looking on at this fast accelerating privileged world.

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