Fast rail link to Sheffield ‘scrapped by ministers’

MINISTERS are facing backlash in Sheffield after plans to provide the city with a faster train service appear to have been dropped.

A new trans-Pennine line connecting Manchester to Sheffield and Leeds via HS2 seems to have been scrapped by the Department of Transport because it would cost too much, it was reported yesterday.

But a fast train line between Manchester and Leeds via Bradford will be built as part of the scheme previously known as HS3. The dropping of the Sheffield project is likely to anger city residents who have to put up with a 48-minute train journey to get to Manchester.

Angela Smith, Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: ‘Our Victorian ancestors understood the importance of major rail links between Sheffield and Manchester, and yet we now struggle to get a commitment to rebuilding these links from the Transport Secretary.’