Reform would 'scrap Northern Powerhouse Rail for rail tunnel project linking cities like Sheffield'
A Reform government would scrap Northern Powerhouse Rail and bring in a tunnel, serving lines to cities including Sheffield, the party’s deputy leader says.
Richard Tice told companies considering bidding for contracts to build Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) they should “not bother” as the party would “spend the money instead on things the country needs more”.
NPR is a proposal to boost east-west rail connections across northern England.
Labour is expected to make a commitment to NPR in the coming weeks.
Mr Tice made his comments in a forward to a report by centre-right think tank Policy Exchange.
The document predicted NPR would be an “even greater train crash” than HS2, as a new line between Liverpool and Manchester could cost £30 billion.
Researchers warned journeys between the cities on this line would take one minute longer than the quickest current services – which are 34 minutes – because the new line would serve Manchester airport.
The report proposes alternative schemes, such as “an Elizabeth line for the North”, a northern equivalent of the railway between Berkshire and Essex via tunnels under central London.
This would involve a tunnel under Manchester city centre, linking conventional lines serving destinations such as Liverpool, Preston, Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield.
Policy Exchange claimed the “crisis in HS2 is even worse than ministers admit”, as the “true cost” for the line between London and Birmingham is “up to 22 per cent” higher than the amount “declared to Parliament”.
An HS2 Ltd source disputed this figure.
Mr Tice linked the “political obsession with high-speed rail” with how politics is “estranged, in so many ways, from ordinary voters’ real wishes and needs”.
He went on: “We all know the phrase that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.
“All of us, it seems, except the Government.
“Even as the historic disaster of HS2 blows through more billions in overspending and more years of delay, even as it sucks money from things the country actually needs, even as taxes on people and business rise, ministers are about to commit to further high-speed rail schemes which could make HS2’s problems and price-tag look trivial.”
He added: “To anyone tempted to bid for the Liverpool-Manchester high speed scheme, or the revived northern leg of HS2, I give this warning: do not bother.
“A Reform government will spend the money instead on things the country needs more.
“That is the choice: tens of billions freed to spend on conventional rail and roads that help ordinary folk get to work – or another two decades of failure and waste.”
However, Naomi Smith, chief executive of the research group Best for Britain, raised concerns as to whether alternative investment in the northern railways would be forthcoming.
She said: “The question here isn’t if the North needs more investment in rail, because it patently does, it’s whether Northern voters can trust Reform UK’s vague promises that they will replace this investment once they axe an existing scheme.
“These are the same people who told us Brexit would boost the economy and we all know how that turned out.”