Relocate DfT to the North: then we’ll see action

So, Network Rail’s Tim Shoveller believes that northern politicians (including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham) will accept the trade-off of a temporary reduction in the number of services running through the Castlefield Corridor providing work continues to establish a longer-term fix ( RAIL 899).

If that is true, then in my opinion the northern politicians, including Burnham, will deserve their full measure of castigation when that longer-term fix does not materialise.

I would not be at all surprised to read in RAIL 999 that either the Transport Secretary of the day or

Greater Manchester Mayor of the day repeats the phrase that the search for a longer-term fix continues.

The Government, northern politicians and the Mayor already know what the longer-term fix is: two extra platforms at

Manchester Piccadilly and two extra tracks between there and the Castlefield curve.

The search (if any) is probably to determine how to pay for it. If HM Treasury has anything to do with it, then its preference is that no money be made available for that purpose.

In the meantime, reversing some trains at Piccadilly certainly negates some of the considerable investment in the Castlefield Corridor.

Former Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling crippled the project by culling the expansion, which was never a ‘nice to have’ addition but a necessity.

If there is to be a significant step made towards a result, I suggest it would be to move the entire Department for Transport to either Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds or Sheffield.

If senior civil servants resist the relocation, then make it clear that resignations will be accepted.

Once the mandarins have to experience the realities of transport infrastructure in the North on a daily basis, one can be sure that their minds will be opened to finding solutions.