No 10 has said its downgraded rail plan will bring faster connections a decade earlier, amid fury in northern England and the Midlands over the scrapping of both the eastern leg of the high-speed HS2 and a promised new fast line from Manchester to Leeds.
The long-delayed integrated rail plan (IRP), being published later on Thursday, is expected to confirm the axing of key schemes to save billions of pounds, after repeated pledges from Boris Johnson and others to “level up” by building new high-speed lines between northern cities.
Instead, under the £96bn rail plan HS2 will stop in the east Midlands, at an existing station rather than a new planned hub, while the main TransPennine route at the heart of what was due to be Northern Powerhouse Rail will consist mainly of upgrades to existing track rather than a new line between Manchester and Leeds.
Department for Transport (DfT) sources said the plan would transform passenger journeys between the Midlands and the north, but leaked details have already been widely described as a “betrayal” of the regions.
Johnson reaffirmed his commitment to building HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in 2020, but the eastern leg has been in doubt since then with a review of the exact route.
The DfT said the IRP plans would still deliver more capacity and quicker journeys “in a way that presented value for money for the taxpayer” and would mean “passengers and consumers benefit from tangible changes more quickly”.
Promised upgrades include full electrification of the Midland mainline – a scheme scrapped halfway through by the government in 2017 – and of the existing TransPennine line, as well as more investment in the east coast.
Another £360m will be spent to roll out more contactless, integrated ticketing of the kind seen in London and the south-east across commuter transport networks.
Johnson said the rail plan would be “the biggest transport investment programme in a century, delivering meaningful transport connections for more passengers across the country, more quickly – with both high-speed journeys and better local services, it will ensure no town or city is left behind”.
But Labour said it would be “crumbs” compared with what was promised. Jim McMahon, shadow transport secretary, said: “It’s laughable and insulting to expect people to be satisfied with watered down schemes and crumbs from the table, after putting their faith in a prime minister who has gone back on his word at the first opportunity.”
The Treasury has been seeking to rein in spending on infrastructure amid wider concern about the costs of HS2. The Oakervee review said in 2018 that HS2 should be built in full but warned the final bill for the whole network could reach £106bn.
The HS2 line from London and Birmingham is under construction, while the line on from Crewe to Manchester should still be built under the new plan.
The line from Birmingham and Leeds is expected to be ended at East Midlands Parkway rather than a planned new hub at Toton, between Nottingham and Derby.
Lilian Greenwood, the MP for Nottingham South and a former chair of the transport select committee, said she was “furious but not surprised” at the move. She said: “For a decade authorities have been working how to maximise the benefits for the entire region from our hub station at Toton and those plans are being thrown into the bin.”
The rail engineer and writer Gareth Dennis agreed, and said the plan, by not building new lines and concentrating on engineering upgrades, risked decades of disruption to services. He said HS2 would have segregated high-speed trains and allowed more capacity to be released to local services and freight, adding: “This is going to make railways worse in the north and Midlands than they are now.”
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the train drivers’ union, Aslef, said it was “levelling down”, adding: “This is not the green, efficient, modern railway of the future we were promised.”
Bradford, one of the worst-connected cities in England, had hoped to be at the centre on the new line planned by northern leaders. Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, said the move would be “pulling the whole damn rug from under our feet”.
