Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2
Transport for the North wants to ensure that Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is fully integrated into the planning of HS2 Phase 2B, “to ensure both maximum value for money and that Northern Powerhouse Rail can be developed without delay”.
HS2 Phase 2B will link Crewe to Manchester Airport and Manchester, and Birmingham to Sheffield, Leeds and points north, from around 2033.
To ensure this integration is optimal, there will be several junctions between NPR and HS2:
■ In the Leeds area - enabling trains from Manchester, Sheffield and the Midlands to travel via Leeds and on to York and the North East.
■ In Cheshire - to serve Liverpool via a new line, enabling services between Liverpool and Manchester via the HS2 Manchester spur, and offering the potential for faster LiverpoolLondon HS2 services on to the HS2 main line.
■ At Manchester Piccadilly - which, combined with a range of other interventions, would enable services from Manchester Airport and Liverpool to continue east towards Leeds and the North East.
■ North of Sheffield at Clayton - enabling trains to run through Sheffield and re-join HS2 to Leeds.
Possible journey times and service frequency using HS2/NPR have been examined. Liverpool to Manchester Airport would be around 15 minutes, and onward to Piccadilly a further ten.
The Sheffield to Leeds journey times could be around 26 minutes (compared with 41 minutes currently), while ManchesterLeeds could be no more than 30 minutes via a stop serving Bradford.
Following submission of the NPR Strategic Outline Business Case at the end of 2018, and assuming a positive outcome, more detailed design work will start. This will include how local services will connect NPR stations, and the potential to continue NPR services beyond the core network to other locations such as Sunderland, Doncaster, Preston and Carlisle.
The next phase of work will be to develop propositions or the Liverpool-Manchester, SheffieldLeeds, Leeds-Manchester, and Sheffield-Manchester corridors, as well as for the wider NPR network to Newcastle and Hull.