Broken promises and empty words on transport are all government has for Sheffield says MP

Ministers are today set to announce the eastern leg of HS2 through Yorkshire will be axed to save money.

Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield said it was the latest ‘major let down’ which includes:

- Scrapping the electrification of the Midland Mainline in 2017

- Binning plans for a road tunnel between Sheffield and Manchester to divert traffic off the Snake Pass

- Replacing a new high speed rail line between Sheffield and Manchester with an upgrade to the Hope Valley line, and trains ‘never going above 60mph’

- Refusing a bid to upgrade the Sheaf Valley rail line

- Cancelling the city’s direct rail link with Manchester Airport.

Mr Blomfield said: “Scrapping the Yorkshire leg of HS2 is a major let down for the North but, looking at the immediate challenges we face, the extension of Supertram to both our hospitals will make a huge improvement to travel in the city and bringing buses into public control through franchising gives us the chance to transform services.

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“Together it would enable us to give people the public transport services they want, reduce congestion, and cut damaging emissions.

“We also need to press for the investment in rail links with Manchester and Leeds to slash journey times, increase frequency and enable our three cities to create an economic hub that can compete with London and the south-east.

“After all the big promises of investment in the North, it looks like we’ve lost the extra capacity of HS2 and the improved connection it would have provided with Leeds, as well as the significant enhancements we needed to the Manchester route.

“This comes on top of the recent decision to scrap the direct link with Manchester Airport and the repeated broken promises for electrification of the Midland Mainline between Sheffield and London. It confirms again that all Boris Johnson’s bluster about levelling up is just empty words.”

In March, Transport for the North agreed a final route for Northern Powerhouse Rail – but then agreed to delay submitting a business case for it at the request of the Department for Transport raising fears it would be downgraded.

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