Union connectivity
£20m funding for Union Connectivity research includes assessing feasibility of a fixed link to Northern Ireland.
GOVERNMENT has committed £20 million to developing proposals that feature in the Union Connectivity Review interim report produced by Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE.
It includes work to assess the feasibility of a fixed link between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. Using engineering consultants, Douglas Oakervee
CBE and Gordon Masterton
OBE will provide an outline cost and timescale for the link and associated works required.
Hendy was tasked last June with looking at ways to improve connectivity between the four home nations.
That £20m is for all transport modes, but in rail it will be used to explore improving rail connectivity between the North Wales Coast and England, enhancing the
West Coast Main Line to create significantly faster journeys, and improvements in South East Wales.
The final version of Hendy’s report is due this summer, ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
“Devolution has been good for transport, but it has also led to a lack of attention to connectivity between the four nations, due to competing priorities and complex funding,” said Hendy.
“A UK Strategic Transport Network could resolve this, with its core objective centred on levelling up across the whole of the UK.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “It’s now time to build back better in a way which brings every corner of the UK closer together. We will
harness the incredible power of infrastructure to level up parts of our country that have too long been left off the transport map.
“This pioneering review by Sir Peter Hendy gives us the tools we need to deliver on our ambitions for a UK-wide transport network that encompasses sea, rail, and road. I also want to cut passenger duty on domestic flights so we can support connectivity across the country.”
Tim Foster, Interim Strategy and Programmes Director at Transport for the North, said northern England must be at the heart of the mission to connect the UK and level up.
“Long-term commitment to a transformed rail network for the UK - including Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 - must also now form the backbone of better connections across the union. Doing so will deliver more rail capacity and increase reliability, as well as cutting carbon emissions and driving recovery of our economy,” he said.
However, Michael Matheson, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, said: “I spoke to Sir Peter Hendy and Grant Shapps and again made clear that transport infrastructure is a devolved matter and the Union Connectivity Review was established without any discussion and consultation with Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland.
“We will always seek to engage constructively with the UK Government, but never in a way that undermines the devolution settlement. This review is a systematic attack on the Scottish Parliament’s powers - a power grab that fundamentally undermines devolution.
“We already have a robust process for evidencing future transport infrastructure investment in Scotland - STPR2, not the Union Connectivity Review. We will consider the UCR Interim report and respond in due course.
“What Scotland really needs now is an infrastructure-led economic recovery to deliver new jobs and speed up the transition to net zero, which won’t be possible with the 5% cut to our capital budget in the UK Spending Review for 2021-22.”
Railway Industry Association Chief Executive Darren Caplan said: “It is positive to see the Government set out ideas for new rail investment, including better connections from HS2 to Scotland and North Wales and higher capacity on the East Coast Main Line.
“Rail has a vital role to play in the UK’s economic recovery from Coronavirus and in achieving net zero [carbon emissions] by 2050.
“But to do so it needs certainty on planned rail schemes, like HS2 Eastern Leg, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Midlands Rail Hub, as well as visibility of upcoming rail enhancement schemes, and the decarbonisation and digitalisation of the network.” @Richard_rail
See Industry Insider, page 68.