BRITAIN’S rail minister, Mr Huw Merriman, has announced £3.9bn in funding to make rail journeys between Manchester, Leeds and York “more frequent and reliable,” according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

This will involve accelerating the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), including full electrification and purchasing 29 new trains to enable operator TransPennine Express (TPE) to replace its diesel fleet.

The money will also fund a new station at Bradford which, according to DfT, will “facilitate a new rail connection to Manchester via Huddersfield.” There will also be accessibility improvements at 15 stations in the north of England.

Under TRU, the number of tracks between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe will be doubled to four to enable faster trains to pass slower services and provide additional capacity for freight.

The government says it plans to invest a further £4.6bn in rail for northern England at a later stage, raising the total including previously-approved funding to £11.5bn. According to DfT, this exceeds what the government has spent on building the Elizabeth Line in London.

“The work that will take place will enable journey time improvements for our customers who travel across the Pennines, while also improving capacity along the route allowing us to run faster, greener and more reliable services,” says TPE managing director, Mr Chris Jackson.

The Railway Industry Association (RIA), which represents rail suppliers in Britain, has been more cautious in its response.

“As far as we understand, this is not new money for rail and is not a new pipeline opportunity for rail suppliers,” says RIA CEO, Mr Darren Caplan.

“Our members now await the next business case update for TRU, as well as certainty on a rolling stock strategy for the project, enhanced governance arrangements and review of the impact of inflation on costs.”

The funding comes only weeks after the government announced that it would not build High Speed 2 (HS2) beyond Birmingham, and that the money saved would be used for a range of projects known as Network North that includes Bradford’s new station as well as electrification to Hull.

However, DfT denies that this latest package is compensation for cancelling HS2 in northern England and points out that TRU is funded separately.

“The Transpennine Route Upgrade underpins Network North but is a standalone project, with its own business case. It does not take funding from the £36bn secured for Network North,” a DfT spokesperson told IRJ.

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