Government has so far failed to explain the detailed reasoning behind its decision to scale back long-promised plans for Northern high-speed rail links, two months after its Integrated Rail Plan was published.
When the IRP was published on November 18 it prompted outrage across the North of England, particularly in Yorkshire, after it emerged that the original proposal for a new line between Manchester and Leeds had been significantly reduced amid a halving of the proposed network’s budget.
Hull was left off the high-speed map, while the eastern leg of HS2 was axed. Manchester’s request for an underground station at Piccadilly, in order to avoid huge swathes of prime city centre land being taken up and rail lines running out over Ardwick on stilts, was dismissed as too expensive and unnecessary.
