Pressure grows on May over rail

Why councils must lobby the PM

THERESA MAY – whose Maidenhead constituency will soon benefit from Crossrail – clearly believes the Government has a track record to defend when it comes to investment in the train network. “We recognise the importance of rail services,” she told Prime Minister’s Questions before being interrupted by a Labour MP who disagreed with this assertion.

The backbencher concerned was not alone. Both Leeds and Kirklees Council are due to debate motions next week which will challenge Mrs May to commit her Government to transforming this region’s railway services after Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, backtracked on plans to electrify two key routes before placing the onus on the North’s leaders to rectify decades of underinvestment.

The Yorkshire Post, for one, welcomes these latest interventions. With the Tory party conference beginning in Manchester in less than a month’s time, and Ministers finalising the contents of the forthcoming Budget at present, this political pressure needs to be maintained if there’s to be significant investment in the North’s railways, and specifically the transPennine route, before work begins on a second Crossrail scheme in London.

Given this urgency, and the understanding that was, in fairness, shown by Chancellor Philip Hammond when he visited Leeds on Monday, each of Yorkshire’s 20 councils should now be passing similar motions and lobbying Mrs May. The reason is this: a world-class railway will not just have the potential to benefit towns and cities along the routes concerned, but transform the wider region’s prospects. If it’s good enough for London which already has a first-rate transport infrastructure, it’s good enough for the North.

If anything, Mr Grayling’s ill-judged intervention in these columns has helped to galvanise the region and show what can be possible when politicians and businesses are more strategic in their outlook and pull in the same direction. The task now is to maintain this momentum – whether it be fairer funding for transport or the considerable progress being made behind the scenes on devolution – so Mrs May is then forced to put her words into action.