Petitions urge greater transport investment in North
Almost 70,000 people have signed a petition calling for the promised Manchester-Leeds trans-Pennine electrification to go ahead and £59bn investment in northern transport to match money spent in the South. It comes ahead of a cross-party summit meeting of northern political and business leaders this week in Leeds to discuss transport investment in the North. Meanwhile, a collective of more than 50 business and civic leaders from across the North has written to the Government calling on it to back Northern Powerhouse Rail in this autumn's Budget, saying it would create 850,000 jobs and bring about a transformational legacy of investment "the likes of which has not been seen before". The letter, produced under the umbrella of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, states that a high-speed rail network linking the North's major cities is fundamental to the success of the entire country, and that poor connectivity was proving prohibitive to attracting inward investment.
