Fresh attack on North rail plans
GOVERNMENT plans for rail improvements have come under fresh attack after officials said they would provide “less for the North and later.”
Politicians and business leaders from around the region have lined up to condemn the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan, despite Boris Johnson insisting the proposals were ‘better’ than what Northern leaders had asked for.
At a meeting of the Transport for the North Group, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the Government’s rail plan was a “bombshell” while West Yorkshire counterpart Tracy Brabin said it was “a betrayal of levelling up for West Yorkshire.
They were joined by North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll and North East Transport Authority chairman Martin Gannon in criticising the plans.
Mr Driscoll said: “The CBI are very keen on much better transport in the North and talking about the danger a ‘branch line economy’.
“The trade unions are very keen on better transport infrastructure investment, the business community is keen on better transport infrastructure.
“It seems everybody wants this yet Whitehall has let us down.”
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said: “It takes some doing to unify a Scouser and a Geordie with West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.
“I suppose if you treat everyone equally badly you will unite people.”
They were speaking after Tim Foster, interim strategy and programme director at Transport for the North, said the Government’s plan was doing nothing to close the north-south divide and was disadvantaging eastern parts of the North compared to western areas.
Tim Wood, Northern Powerhouse Rail director, said Transport for the North’s analysis of the scheme showed many schemes would not actually be delivered until the mid-2040s.
He said: “On Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Integrated Rail Plan is proposing less for the North and later.”
Members of Transport for the North, who include business leaders as well as regional mayors, agreed to go back to the Government and restate their case for the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans, which they claim are necessary to improve the economy in the North.
However, Transport Minister Andrew Stephenson hit back, saying: “Labour want to stick to the outdated plans which would give the East Midlands and the North nothing for 10 years.
“Our plan delivers the same, similar or better journey times almost everywhere.”
THESE remarkable images show the faces of Newcastle United’s earliest supporters. They were captured at St James’ Park 120 years ago in November 1901 during a match against fellow emerging Northern giants Liverpool.
Both clubs had been in existence for a mere nine years at the time, having formed in 1892.
Association football was relatively new and rocketing in popularity.
It was helped by the inexorable rise of newspapers (including the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, founded in 1885) which helped quickly spread the popularity of the game and facilitated by the rapid expansion of the railways, which made it easier for teams to travel to play each other.
Support for the fledgling Magpies grew quickly. For this match, there were an estimated 20,000 ‘enthusiasts’ (as newspapers termed football fans then) in attendance – a massive crowd for the times.
The Division One game on Saturday, November 23, in an age long before floodlit football, kicked off at 2.30 to take advantage of winter daylight.
The two teams were made up mainly of Scotsmen who included United centre-forward Bob McColl, the scorer of the game’s only goal.
He would go on to open a string of well-known sweet shops – RS McColl – around Tyneside and Scotland.
Other notable names in the home team included Andy Aitken, Jock Peddie and England goalkeeper Matt
Kingsley who can be seen emerging from the tunnel wearing black and white while also sporting a cap.
Our images, courtesy of the British Film Industry, are stills from a sevenminute feature originally filmed by Mitchell and Kenyon.
The Blackburn-based filmmakers’ early commercial motion pictures captured daily Edwardian life in towns and cities across Northern England and today give us a unique insight into those vanished times. You can find the film on BFI at https://player.bfi.org.uk/.
The fuzzy, jerky action is not quite Sky Sports standards – with the three hand-cranked cameras at St James’ Park all missing the game’s solitary goal – but the real fascination lies with the footage of the spectators.
The seemingly all-male crowd, shrouded in a haze of tobacco smoke, is joking, smiling and laughing at the camera and waving their newspapers, smoking pipes and hats for effect.
This would be a relatively successful season for the Magpies, who would finish third in the league and reach the quarter-final of the FA Cup. However, even better was just around the corner.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Newcastle United supporters would see their team crowned champions of England three times and compete in five FA Cup finals – with the first victory in 1910 sending the city into pandemonium.
They did not know it then – but United fans would never again have it so good!