Member Article

Manchester-Leeds rail link improvement could ‘earn billions’ for economy

Improving the rail links between Manchester and Leeds should be a priority and could substantially improve economic output from the cities according to a government-backed report.

The report highlights previous research suggesting cutting journey times in the North by 20 minutes could add as much as £6.7 billion to the economy.

The Centre for Cities report found that second only to improving public transport generally outside London, it should prioritise the improvement of the existing rail links between Manchester and Leeds.

It said that this recommendation is based on the economic scale of these cities, with a high concentration of high skilled jobs such as the professional services, and that despite these jobs being connected by the trans-pennine rail line, train speeds fall well short of the National Rail aspiration for such lines of at least 60 miles per hour.

Centre for Cities was asked by DfT to look at the performance and coverage of mass transit, and specifically rail, in and between cities in the Midlands, North of England and Scotland, and to judge where transport links present significant challenges to future growth of those cities.

It asked Centre for Cities to look at where the improvement of services that currently run on the transport system could bring most benefit to both their economies and so to the national economy as a whole.

Centre for Cities chief executive Alexandra Jones said: “The Manchester to Leeds route currently takes almost twice as long to travel as the longer distance between London and Milton Keynes.

“The capital’s rail connections to neighbouring cities have played an important part in building strong and successful economies across the South East, and the evidence strongly suggests that Manchester and Leeds would benefit enormously from quicker and more frequent connections.

“This is a critically important, well-overdue upgrade that should be the first stage of delivering on the Government’s ambition to build a Northern powerhouse.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .