Does The Acceleration Of The TransPennine Upgrade Have Anything To Do With Boris?
In Issue 885 of Rail Magazine, which was published on 14/08/19, there is an article, which is entitled Johnson Vows To Build New Manchester-Leeds Line, where this is said.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to fund a new line as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail in what has been described by leaders in the North as a “seminal moment”.
Speaking in Manchester on July 27, Johnson said. “I want to be the PM who does with Northern Powerhouse Rail what we did with Crossrail in London. And today I’m going to deliver on my commitment to that vision with a pledge to fund the Leeds to Manchester route.
“It will be up to local people and us to come to an agreement on the exact proposal they wat – but I have tasked officials to accelerate their work on these plans so that we are ready to do a deal in the autumn.”
Since Boris’s speech, plans for improvements between Huddersfield and Dewsbury have been announced and now it seems that Network Rail have published plans for full electrification between Huddersfield and Leeds, as I discussed in Is There Going To Be Full Electrification Between Leeds And Huddersfield?.
Whether you are for or against Boris, he certainly seems to have got action from Network Rail.
The Anonymous Widower 
However, this announcement came alongside the announcement re HS2 which coasted doubts on HS2 .
Which raises questions as to how much NPR depends on HS2 and if HS2 were cancelled could NPR stand alone and how much more would it cost ?
The announcement that it would be fully electrified suggests that dis-continuous electrification may no longer be a serious plan for the future.
If NPR is an extension of HS2 then questions as to whether it will be built to the same gauge as HS2 thus allowing full through running if like with Eurostars larger gauge trains are introduced in the future or even regional Eurostars becomes a reality!
Hopefully it will include new modern trans Penines tunnels given this is biggest barrier to shorten journey times across the north .
Comment by Melvyn | August 31, 2019 |
Douglas Oakervee who is leading the enquiry into HS2 is a past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.Others on the review are equally qualified to be there. But his record suggests we won’t get a standard analysis, but a high quality one, that some won’t please everybody!
There are two types of discontinuous electrification to my mind. One where there are short earthed sections and the pantograph just runs over them and others where the pantograph is lowered and then raised to pass through the gap.
I think whatever is done in the end, it should have the capacity for perhaps 30-40 years, as we don’t want to repeat this exercise for HS4, HS5 and HS6.
Comment by AnonW | August 31, 2019 |
It is though typical of Johnson from his days as mayor of London to claim credit for developments that were initiated by his predecessor.
Comment by JohnC | September 1, 2019 |