HS2: Are the transport links replacing high-speed rail new?
- Published
Every penny of the £36bn saved by scrapping high-speed rail to Manchester will be used for alternative rail, road and bus schemes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says.
But some of the schemes announced in place of HS2 have been promised before and there are question marks over others.
Will Manchester get longer platforms?
Although the high-speed line to Manchester has been cancelled, HS2 trains from London will still continue into the city - albeit partly on existing tracks.
HS2 trains are about 200m long, but there is the option to increase capacity by coupling two together to create a 400m long train with 1,100 seats, external.
The government's Integrated Rail Review said the 200m HS2 trains would not provide more capacity, adding: "Only when a new line and new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly are built can more services including both NPR and 400m HS2 services be accommodated."
BBC Verify asked the Department for Transport whether there would still be funding for longer platforms at Manchester Piccadilly.
We were pointed towards the £12bn to better connect Manchester with Liverpool. Some of this money could be used to improve the platforms, or build a whole new station for HS2 trains to arrive in.
Upgrading the A1 announced again
A dual carriageway between Morpeth and Ellingham in North East England was announced.
This has been promised before. People in the area have been waiting for this development since at least 1990, when other parts of the A1 were brought up to motorway standard.
In December 2014, former Prime Minister David Cameron announced £290m for this stretch of road. It was scheduled to be completed before 2020.
Planning permission had to be extended, external because a decision to go ahead had not been made.
A tram for West Yorkshire?
Work on a mass transit system linking Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield will receive £2.5bn.
The scheme was announced in the government's 2021 Integrated Rail Plan, but only £100m was granted for a project then expected to cost over £2bn.
Leeds in particular has been waiting a long time for improved transport links.
A previous supertram project for the city was cancelled by Labour in 2005 and a trolleybus was scrapped in 2016 after being denied planning permission.
A new station for Bradford
There will be £2bn to include a "brand new" railway station in Bradford.
The new station was proposed as part of plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), but rejected when Boris Johnson's government made changes to the scheme in 2021.
However, the station was endorsed by Liz Truss in 2022, when she reversed the decision to curtail NPR, but axed again when Rishi Sunak took office.
The government says the alternative schemes will be delivered 'more quickly' than HS2
Quick changes to some transport schemes
Almost as quickly as they were announced, the details of some projects were amended.
Leamside line
Reopening the North East's Leamside rail line - between Pelaw, Gateshead and Tursdale, County Durham - was included in the Network North report on how the £36bn would be reinvested.
But this was soon removed from the website and the government now says money for the region "could part fund", external its reopening.
A259 from Bognor
Another scheme aimed to improve the A259 from Bognor Regis to Southampton, external, according to the full Network North document.
However, the government has since confirmed the improvements are actually towards Littlehampton, external, which is in a different direction.
Bristol tram
£100m was also announced for a tram "in and around Bristol", as posted on X by mayor Marvin Rees, external.
That's been changed to say it's £100m for the West of England Combined Authority, which "could" be used for an extension of the MetroWest rail project.
North Wales electrification costs
Electrification of the North Wales Main Line has been given £1bn.
But it has been suggested that this is not enough money.
Prof Stuart Cole, from the University of South Wales and a government adviser on transport, said the figure was based on a 2015 study and that inflation means "we're now really talking about £1.5bn or more".
There are also dangers of such schemes going over budget, with the Maidenhead to Cardiff line costing nearly £2.8bn to electrify. Its original estimate was £874m.
Overall, Network North has announced more money for the South of England than for Wales.
Already delivered
Manchester Airport Metrolink
Nearly £1bn was announced for Manchester's city region, with possible projects including "extending the Manchester Metrolink to Heywood, Bolton, Wigan and Manchester Airport".
However, many people pointed out that the Metrolink was extended to Manchester Airport in 2014.
Transport for Greater Manchester clarified that it was an extension to the line outside Terminal 2 which was being looked at.
The Metrolink was extended to Manchester Airport in 2014
Clifton South Tram extension
Similarly, the £1.5bn for the East Midlands mentioned the possibility of extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton South.
However, that project was completed in 2015.
Nottinghamshire MP and county council leader Ben Bradley told BBC Radio Nottingham that what "it refers to, in a Westminster not-quite-involved-in-the-detail kind of way, is opportunities around Ratcliffe-on-Soar."
Upgrading the A75 and A77 in Scotland
Although the Scottish government is in charge of transport infrastructure in Scotland, Mr Sunak said there would be UK government money to address pinch points on the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer.
He also said there would be better links between the Cairnryan ferry terminals serving Northern Ireland and southwest Scotland and the A77 towards Glasgow.
Councils in the areas say upgrading to dual carriageways would bring "£5bn of positive benefits".
However, as with many of these schemes, the costs are not known and the government has not said how much will be allocated.
Will 'every penny' of savings be reinvested?
Of the £36bn in savings announced by the government, the majority (£30bn) will come from cancelling future work.
The rest is from scaling back plans for Euston Station and persuading investors to chip in.
We have counted about £32bn of spending announced for new schemes.
There are about 15 smaller projects still to be given cash values which could account for the rest of the money.
When will the projects arrive?
The government says the schemes will be delivered "more quickly than HS2".
Much of the spending for cancelled parts of HS2 was scheduled for the 2030s.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said only that "hundreds of millions" of the £36bn will be available in the next few years.
The most immediate impact of the money would be the continuation of £2 bus fares.
There is also some money for local leaders to begin planning the projects that the funding will eventually pay for.
However, schemes will still need approval before they can truly get under way.
Correction, Tuesday 10 October: This article originally said that HS2 trains need longer platforms and those in Manchester may be too short. It has been amended to clarify that this is only an issue if the option of joining two HS2 trains together is used. The article also originally described how Boris Johnson's government cancelled plans for a new station in Bradford. However, the proposals - part of Northern Powerhouse Rail - had not been approved when a decision to change the scheme was made and so we've amend this section to reflect that. Another section which focused on the comparison between the possible costs of the electrification of the North Wales Main Line and electrification of the Maidenhead-Cardiff line said they were of similar length. However, the latter includes stretches with a number of parallel tracks and is longer overall as a result and so this sentence has been removed from the article.
- Published12 February 2020
