A new high speed, electric train line from Liverpool to Hull will be built, according to the Prime Minister.
Liz Truss today reaffirmed her commitment to building what is known as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) in full. It is a pledge the Prime Minister made in her Conservative Party leadership election campaign.
Speaking to ITV News, Ms Truss was asked if her promise to deliver NPR - also known as High Speed Three - would mean a full electric line from Liverpool to Hull, with a stop in Bradford. Responding, she said: "It does."
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Asked about the timings of delivering such a major project, the Prime Minister said this would be set out in due course. She added: "There will be [an electric line] and it will stop at Bradford,” Ms Truss said. “I’m very clear about that. It does."
NPR is a £40 billion plan that has been backed by leaders and organisations across the north for some time. The aim is to vastly improve rail links from the east to the west and better connect the towns and cities of the north.
However, the promised full package of NPR was dropped by Boris Johnson's government towards the end of last year as part of the Integrated Rail Plan announcement. A scaled down version put forward at the time was described as 'cheap and nasty' by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram.
The repeated commitment from Ms Truss will be cautiously welcomed by a region that has been let down before. The Transport for the North group today tweeted: "We welcome this commitment to build #NorthernPowerhouseRail in full with a new line via #Bradford. It will bring jobs and economic growth to the North and is a cornerstone in Levelling Up left behind communities in the region."
Talk of high speed rail lines in Liverpool could bring the idea of a new city centre station back onto the agenda. For several years now there have been discussions about a new station that could link up to Northern Powerhouse Rail and to the High Speed 2 line.
This would require a totally new station because Lime Street is too small to cope with the extra traffic. It's been suggested in the past that a new station would be likely to be in the "Lime Street area" to connect with existing transport links.
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