A major £15billion investment promises to transform the North with new bus, tram, and train routes. The projects announced by Rachel Reeves will span the North, the Midlands, and the West Country, following criticisms that investment was heavily focused around London and the southeast.
Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will get the largest piece of the pie, with £2.5billion and £2.4billion respectively. Manchester will extend its network to Stockport and add stops in Bury, Manchester and Oldham, while services in Birmingham will be extended from the sports quarter to the city centre.
The culture secretary and MP for Wigan, Lisa Nandy, recently said she feared the North could “go up in flames”, because of a “real sense of anger about what people are being asked to put up with”.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said this investment was a watershed moment as “for too long, people in the North and Midlands have been locked out of the investment they deserve”.
She said it would open up access to jobs, grow the economy and drive up quality of life so that “you and your family are better off”.
West Yorkshire has the third largest investment with £2.1billion to begin building the West Yorkshire Mass Transit Programme, and to fund new bus stations in Bradford and Wakefield.
The East Midlands will receive £2billion going towards road, rail and bus connections between Derby and Nottingham, which the mayor of the region, Claire Ward, called the largest transport investment in a generation.
Some £1.8billion will be pumped into the North East to extend the Newcastle to Sunderland Metro through Washington.
£1.6billion is earmarked for the Liverpool city region to make faster connections between Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Everton stadium and Anfield, as well as creating a new bus fleet in St Helens and the Wirral next year.
South Yorkshire will receive £1.5billion to renew the tram network, and the bus services across Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham by 2027.
Tees Valley can expect £1billion, of which £60million will go towards a platform extension programme for Middlesbrough station.
The smallest investment of £800million will go to the West of England to provide more frequent trains between the Bristol city centre and the Brabazon industrial estate.
Transit will also be invested in to link Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
It is Reeves’ first move away from the Treasury’s Green Book, which the chancellor said in a speech had meant “growth created in too few places, felt by too few people and wide gaps between regions, and between our cities and towns”.
