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Commission's Northern transport recommendations to be backed by government, reports say


The UK chancellor will commit over £300 million in funding to "development work" on major transport projects in London and the north of England at the 2016 Budget, the government has announced.

The chancellor said that his speech would "give the green light" to a new 'High Speed 3' (HS3) rail link between the major cities of the north of England and a north-south 'Crossrail 2' across London, as recommended by the independent National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in its pre-Budget reports.

In the most recent of three reports commissioned by the UK Treasury, the NIC called for "very significant investment" into improved road and rail in the north of England, particularly between the cities of Manchester and Leeds. Work to speed up the 40-mile journey between the two cities should begin immediately, with a target of 40 minutes by 2022, according to its report.

The government committed to doubling transport spending to £61 billion by the end of the decade as part of the 2015 Autumn Statement and Comprehensive Spending Review. Infrastructure law expert Jonathan Hart of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that although the announcement would be greeted with "a reasonable degree of cynicism" given the government's "trend of announcing, re-announcing and re-re-announcing the same capital expenditure", the commitment was "an important allocation of seed money".

"That said, for the NIC's recommendations to be satisfied, the vested interests in the chancellor's northern projects will need to be carefully coordinated – and soon – to avoid these sums not delivering their full potential," he said.

"The NIC stated very clearly what is needed, when, and why it is critical. For this, it is to be commended. But the NIC does not hold the purse strings nor have to consider the further financial deficit that has come to light since the election. The number of stakeholders and challenges they face is mind boggling. Northerners might also spot some disparity between the sums allocated to the Powerhouse and Crossrail 2; the latter also probably having done significant work on route alignment, initial planning and with potentially fewer stakeholders involved in determining where the money would go," he said.

HS3, as envisaged by the NIC, would run from Liverpool in the west to Hull and Newcastle in the east and consist of upgraded lines, new sections of track and some of the northern sections of the planned 'HS2' national high speed rail line, according to its report. This project would ultimately deliver more trains with more capacity and at faster speeds, ultimately cutting journey times between Manchester and Leeds to just 30 minutes, the NIC said.

The commission has recommended that route decisions on the northern sections of HS2, due to be announced later this year, should be made in a way that supports enhanced high-speed connections between the cities of the north, and that an "integrated plan" for HS3 be drawn up by the end of next year. The work would "inevitably need to be delivered in phases" with the route between Manchester and Leeds prioritised, improving capacity and frequency by 2022, according to the report.

The NIC has also recommended urgent improvements to the M62 connecting Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, in order to cut journey times by up to 20% and support up to a third more traffic. The government should also allocate development funding for a long-term strategy of improvements to the road network, which should prioritise better connections with Manchester International Airport, it said.

"Leeds and Manchester are just 40 miles apart but there is no quick and easy way to travel between the two," said Lord Adonis, the interim chair of the NIC. "In rush hour it can take more than two hours by car, by train it can be almost an hour."

"A better connected north will be better for jobs, better for families and better for Britain. The work should begin as quickly as possible," he said.

The NIC was set up last year to take a long-term look at the UK's infrastructure needs and provide independent advice to ministers and parliament. It was asked to make initial recommendations on three particular areas, including transport connectivity in the north of England, ahead of the Budget. Publishing its recommendations on London transport last week, it recommended that Crossrail 2 be taken forward "as a priority", with the aim of opening the line in 2033.

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