MP’s plea over rail route electrification
A Yorkshire MP has urged Ministers not to “cherry-pick” the most financially viable parts of the trans-Pennine railway to electrify when a final decision is made about a £3bn upgrade of the vital route later this year.
A YORKSHIRE MP has urged Ministers not to “cherry-pick” the most financially viable parts of the trans-Pennine railway to electrify when a final decision is made about a £3bn upgrade of the vital route is made later this year.
Rail Minister Jo Johnson was dragged to the Commons to answer an Urgent Question from Labour yesterday as the Government came under pressure over reports that the promised electrification of the route between Leeds and Manchester was to be ditched on cost grounds.
He told MPs that the Government was committed to electrification “where it delivers passenger benefits and value for money” and that an announcement on what upgrades would be made to the 76-mile route would come later in the year, pending consideration of a Network Rail report.
Some £290m was earmarked for trans-Pennine electrification by the Government in 2011, but last summer its future was thrown into doubt when Transport Secretary Chris Grayling cancelled two similar schemes elsewhere in the country.
Mr Grayling attributed the decision to the emergence of bimode technology which can run on electric or diesel technology, though a report last week by the Transport Committee said the benefits of this approach were “uncertain”.
Reports over the weekend suggested the Department for Transport was considering not electrifying the route between Leeds and Manchester because of the cost and difficulty of fixing electric cables to Pennines rock.
Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin told the Commons yesterday: “My constituents are still experiencing delays, overcrowding and cancellations; in every meeting I have with TransPennine, Northern and the Secretary of State I have been reassured ‘everything is going to be OK once we have electrification going’.
“The Secretary of State has said ‘we don’t need to electrify all of every route’. Can the Minister tell the House that when electrification goes ahead it will be the whole route, not cherry-picked what is most financially viable.”
Mr Johnson replied: “The Department wants to get the best value for taxpayers’ money out of the £2.9bn that has been set aside for the trans-Pennine route The cost of the promised upgrade of the 76-mile trans-Pennine route between Leeds, Manchester and York. upgrade, I think all members of the House should be able to understand that as an objective.
“The department is currently awaiting Network Rail’s final project plan and we have instructed them to prioritise the elements that bring the quickest passenger benefits.”
In a message to MPs, Mr Grayling said that “unlike some other investment projects, the transPennine upgrade will be a rolling programme of enhancements, including both major civil engineering projects and electrification.”
Meanwhile, the Government confirmed today that a depot to maintain and service trains for the planned HS2 route is to be built at a logistic and manufacturing park on the edge of Leeds. The HS2 rolling stock depot east of the city will allow 24-hour maintenance of the high-speed trains running from London to Manchester and Yorkshire and will create 125 skilled jobs, Department for Transport officials say.
It will be built at the Gateway 45 site, a centre for logistics and manufacturing next to junction 45 of the M1 at Rothwell, after previously being earmarked for the village of Crofton near Wakefield. The depot is the latest major development to come for Leeds as part of HS2, with the UK’s first dedicated hub for high-speed rail technology also set to be built in the city.