OFF THE RAILS
Misery for thousands of commuters as Boris Johnson SCRAPS key part of HS2 route in major rail overhaul
THOUSANDS of Northern commuters were left dismayed today as Boris Johnson scrapped a key part of the HS2 route.
The eastern leg of the high speed line connecting Leeds with Birmingham has been junked as part of a major railway shakeup.
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps softened the blow with a £96billion rail improvement package to upgrade services.
Hailing the biggest overhaul since the Victorians, he said the Integrated Rail Review dramatically cuts journey times across Britain.
HS2 has shattered its budget and set to stretch into the tens of billions while also being behind schedule.
The ultra-fast trains were originally meant to connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to help bring opportunity and wealth to left-behind areas.
But Mr Shapps today confirmed the high speed line from Birmingham will now stop at Nottingham rather than travel all the way to Leeds.
MPs were furious that this part of the line had been ditched and let rip at the Transport Sec in the Commons this morning.
Huw Merriman, Tory chairman of the Transport Select Committee, said: "The Prime Minister promised that HS2 and Northern Powerhouse rail was not an either/or option and those in Leeds and Bradford may be forgiven for viewing it today as neither.
"This is the danger in selling perpetual sunlight and leaving the others to explain the arrival of moonlight."
Tory MP Robbie Moore, who represents Keighley in Bradford which will now miss out on HS2, said he was "deeply disappointed.
Mr Shapps also revealed:
- HS2 West will run from London to Manchester in 1 hour 11 minutes and from Birmingham to Manchester in 41-51 minutes, compared to 86 minutes.
- HS2 East will run from Nottingham to Birmingham in 26 minutes, down from 1 hour 14 minutes.
- It will also run from Nottingham to London in 57 minutes, and from London to Sheffield in 1 hour 27 minutes.
- Plans for a new HS2 line from Crewe to Manchester.
- A Northern Powerhouse Rail line between Leeds and Manchester, slashing the journey by 20 minutes.
- The electrification of the Transpennine Main Line between Manchester and Leeds and York.
- The rollout of contactless pay-as-you go ticketing at stations in the North.
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Mr Johnson is travelling by train to Yorkshire today to launch the plans - and was snapped running for a train.
Asked if he was breaking his promise to the people of Leeds, the PM told reporters: "You are talking total rubbish, because we are doubling capacity between Manchester and Leeds."
Writing in the Yorkshire Post, the PM said pressing ahead with the old plans to connect Nottingham to Leeds would take an age to build.
He wrote: "HS2 will come to Sheffield, meaning a trip to or from London will take just one hour 27 minutes - precisely the same as under the old HS2 plans.
"We'll look at how to get HS2 to Leeds too, with a new study on the best way to make it happen.
"But high-speed rail is grindingly slow to build. Under the original blueprint, first drawn up more than a decade ago, Yorkshire would have not have seen the benefits of our investment until at least the 2040s.
"Levelling up can't wait that long."
He instead committed to a study into the feasibility of extending HS2 into Leeds in the future.
But Labour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said Mr Johnson had "betrayed" northern passengers.
He told Times Radio: "They are trying to present it almost in a way that the people in the North and the Midlands ought to be grateful that at least they're getting crumbs off the table.
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"And that's just not good enough. We want to hold the government to account for the promises that they made because it goes beyond actually just transport investment."
The Sun Says
IT is quite the own-goal to announce a vast, multi-billion pound injection into transport in the North and Midlands and still be accused of betraying voters.
But that is the danger of Boris Johnson’s addiction to over-promising.
Don’t get us wrong. We are not fans of any part of HS2, given the obscene cost and dubious benefits in an era of Zoom calls and lightning fast broadband.
And it may well be that the huge upgrades now replacing the axed Leeds HS2 leg, which wouldn’t have opened until 2040, DO achieve improvements and faster journeys far more rapidly and cheaply. The North should not have to wait another 19 years for better trains.
But Boris pledged HS2 in full after unveiling his “levelling-up” agenda. Voters who trusted him on that have another reason now to doubt him.
Levelling-up did not win him the 2019 election. “Getting Brexit done” and a loathing of Corbyn did that. But beyond Brexit it was his Government’s central mission, with HS2 key to it.
It’s easy meat, this, for Keir Starmer. “The north of England has been betrayed,” gloated the Labour leader.
It has a hollow ring coming from a North London europhile whose true commitment to “Red Wall” Northerners can be judged by his shameful campaign to reverse their Brexit vote.
But still. Boris must sell this to the North. Explain exactly why it will work better than the original plan. Why this isn’t just another rash promise binned.
Judging by the abuse he got yesterday, despite all those billions, he has a lot of work still to do.
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