Welcome for new rail electrification report

A further report calling for the full electrification of the trans-Pennine railway line has been welcomed by Huddersfield Civic Society.

The report, ‘Rail Needs Assessment for the North and the Midlands' (December 2020) produced by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), has suggested that by prioritising regional links the government can maximise its return on rail investment.

It follows the ‘unambiguous support’ of the Secretary of State for Transport, reported in our news item Government acknowledges the case for TransPennine rail electrification.

In considering options for upgrading the network, the NIC concluded that in prioritising regional links there is more likelihood of bringing higher benefits, overall, to cities in the Midlands and the North and for supporting the strategic objective of levelling up, because they:
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• Improve the quality of regional, largely east to west rail links between cities within the Midlands and the North, which are generally inferior to longer distance, predominantly north south, rail links.
• Focus on schemes that can provide the biggest potential improvements in productivity across the Midlands and the North
• Deliver greater improvements to connectivity for several key cities, including Nottingham, Coventry, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool, while also providing significant improvements to a range of smaller places, such as Crewe, Doncaster, Huddersfield and Warrington, and potentially Hull under the electrification programme.

We support this conclusion and further commend the rolling programme of electrification as an essential step to making a more significant impact on decarbonising rail transport.

The prioritisation of electrification on these regional lines would also bring short term improvement in connectivity within West Yorkshire as well as underpinning the critical renewal of Huddersfield Town Centre and settlements along the trans-Pennine route.

We shall continue to urge the government to focus on the tangible and early benefits highlighted by the NIC's analysis, when it publishes its integrated rail plan and associated investment package, now due in the summer of 2021.