Boris Johnson has sparked fury by slashing back tens of billions of pounds worth of rail upgrades for the north.
HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail have both been downgraded in a long-awaited Integrated Rail Plan.
Keir Starmer said Boris Johnson had “ripped up” his own promises and fallen at the first ‘levelling up’ hurdle, adding: “The North of England has been betrayed.”
An interviewer asked Boris Johnson if he thought northerners were "stupid" after he tried to spin the announcement by saying: “This is a fantastic and a monumental achievement and a great day for rail in this country.”
The PM claimed: “What we’re doing is not just the big 'Y' of HS2 but we’re also doing NPR that runs from Liverpool to Warrington to Manchester to Leeds to York.”
Yet neither of those claims are the full truth at all, and it will be the mid-2040s by the time even the stripped-back projects are complete.
Here are all the details of the schemes - which may go some way to explain why so many people are so angry.
What has changed?
Two massive, long-planned rail projects have been watered down, after fears they would cost up to £185bn.
Now they’ll cost £96bn. More could be spent in future but tens of billions of pounds have still been cut from the projects.
The first big change is to High Speed 2 (HS2). The second is Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
What has happened to HS2?
HS2 was meant to be a brand new Y-shaped line, first from London to Birmingham, then branching west to Manchester and east to Leeds.
The West leg is still on but East has been scrapped.
The new East line will only run to East Midlands Parkway near Nottingham. From there, HS2 trains will then run on existing track to Nottingham in one direction and Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield in the other.
Officials claim this is an improvement for Derby and Nottingham, which will now get direct HS2 trains instead of having to get to a parkway station in Toton.
But HS2 trains will not run to Leeds at all. There will be a £100m study to look at whether they might in future.
What has happened to NPR?
NPR was envisaged by many as a new, dedicated east-west line from Liverpool to Manchester and Leeds.
Instead, there will be a new high-speed track only part of the way, from Warrington to Marsden in Yorkshire (through Manchester and Manchester Airport).
Technically NPR trains will still run from Liverpool to York through Warrington, Manchester, Huddersfield and Leeds. But much of it will be on existing track, limiting journey times and capacity.
The government claimed building a full Manchester-Leeds NPR line anew would have cost £18bn more to save four minutes off the journey.
But crucially, axing it means scrapping plans for a new through station in Bradford - England’s seventh-largest city.
What promises has Boris Johnson broken?
The Prime Minister told Parliament in February: "I can certainly confirm that we are going to develop the eastern leg as well as the whole of the HS2."
He also pledged in 2019 to deliver a high-speed NPR line at least from Leeds to Manchester, adding: “I want to be the PM who does with Northern Powerhouse Rail what we did with Crossrail in London.”
The 2019 Tory manifesto repeated that promise saying: "We will build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester."
Neither of those things are happening in full.
What is the route map?
Below is the core route map for HS2 and NPR by the 2040s.
HS2 trains will leave London Euston, stopping at Old Oak Common station in the capital, and run to Birmingham Interchange (the airport) and Birmingham city centre.
North of Birmingham the line will branch, with a new high-speed track west to Crewe, Manchester Airport and Manchester.
The eastern track will end at East Midlands Parkway, with trains continuing on (upgraded) existing track to Nottingham, Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield.
Northern Powerhouse Rail will run from York to Liverpool through Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester, Manchester Airport and Warrington. But only the Huddersfield-to-Warrington stretch will use a new high-speed track, with the rest running on existing track.
Separately there will be upgrades to the East Coast, Midland and Transpennine lines.
Will HS2 still run to Sheffield and Leeds?
HS2 trains from London will still run to Sheffield. A large portion of that journey will be on existing slower track, though the government insists the journey time from London to Sheffield will remain the same as planned at 87 minutes..
HS2 trains will not run to Leeds. There will be a project to see how bringing trains to Leeds could be achieved.
Will NPR still run to Bradford?
Yes, NPR will run from Leeds to Bradford on a branch line with a supposed journey time of 12 minutes.
But there will not be a new line with a new station in Bradford, meaning those wanting to go to Manchester must either change in Leeds, or take the slow train via Halifax.
What will journey times be like?
Faster than now - but slower than under the previous plans.
Grant Shapps boasted journeys will fall from 86 to 51 minutes for Manchester to Birmingham; 86 to 58 minutes for London to Derby; 74 to 26 minutes for Brimingham to Nottingham; 55 to 33 minutes for Leeds to Manchester; and 50 minutes to 35 minutes from Liverpool to Manchester.
But London to Leeds will take 113 minutes - 32 minutes longer than if the city had got HS2.
And journeys from the capital to York, Darlington and Newcastle will all take longer than they would have done under HS2.
Birmingham to Newcastle will take 167 minutes - 50 minutes longer than previously planned.
Journeys from London to Glasgow will still take three hours and 48 minutes; 40 minutes faster than currently.
Scroll down for a full table of journey times.
What will happen to capacity?
Officials insist upgrades will improve capacity across several lines, but critics say this will not happen as much as it would have done with HS2.
HS2 and NPR trains will have to squeeze into existing lines with services that are already running with more stops.
And Leeds is an obvious loser on capacity; it would have had an extra London line in the form of HS2, but instead it will have to rely on the existing network.
How frequent will the trains be?
The government claims train frequency will rise as follows by the mid-2040s.
- Birmingham-Manchester: From 1 to 4 trains per hour
- Birmingham-Nottingham: From 2 to 4 trains per hour
- Birmingham-Leeds: From 1 to 3 trains per hour
- Leeds-Manchester: From 3 to 8 trains per hour
- Liverpool-Manchester: From 3 to 6 trains per hour
- Liverpool-Leeds: From 1 to 4 trains per hour
There would also be “5 to 7” trains per hour running through the HS2 western leg via Crewe.
But this will not be as dramatic as it would have been under full previous plans. Other lines will simply see “no reduction in frequency”
When will it all be finished?
Not for two decades or more.
Sly Tory ministers claimed the upgrades would come into service quicker than HS2 and NPR would have done.
They said HS2 would only have reached Leeds in 2041 while full NPR from Manchester and Leeds would take until 2043.
Yet the small print shows many of the headline measures still won’t be finished until the “early to MID 2040s”, despite being stripped back. The timetable for completions is now…
By around 2030:
- NPR services on the existing Transpennine route from Leeds and York to Manchester.
- Upgrades and electrifications to the existing Midland Main Line, East Coast Main Line, Sheffield to Manchester line and Bradford to Leeds line.
By around 2035:
- HS2 from London to Birmingham, West Midlands and Crewe.
By the ‘early to mid 2040s’
- HS2 West from Crewe to Manchester.
- Surviving section of HS2 East to East Midlands Parkway.
- Surviving high speed NPR section east of Manchester.
- Liverpool to Manchester added to NPR network.
Full table of journey times
According to the government’s plan, this is how journey times compare between now, the original full HS2/NPR plans, and the new plans.
Key: City name, journey time in minutes (NOW), proposed journey time (PREVIOUS PLAN), proposed journey time (NEW PLAN)
From London:
- Nottingham 92 83 57
- Derby 86 83 58
- Sheffield 118 87 87
- Manchester 126 71 71
- Liverpool 132 94 92
- Leeds 133 81 113
- York 112 84 98
- Darlington 142 113 125
- Newcastle 169 137 148
From Birmingham:
- Nottingham 74 55 26
- Derby 34 30 30
- Sheffeld 75 65 62
- Manchester 86 41 41–51
- Leeds 118 49 89
- York 147 57 110
- Darlington 175 85 136
- Newcastle 206 117 167
From Manchester:
- Liverpool 50 29 35
- Leeds 55 29 33
- York 83 51 55
- Darlington 115 77 81
- Newcastle 139 103 117
From Leeds:
- Liverpool 106 61 73
- Manchester 55 29 33
- Bradford 20 8 12
- York 22 17 19
- Darlington 50 43 45
- Newcastle 81 74 76
