North South divide once agian

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.

Transpennine Electrification - Good News for Kirklees

Photo: rail.co.uk

The decision to continue the electrification of Transpennine is perhaps the most important thing that
 could happen for Kirklees and particularly its two main towns, Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

Our two largest towns grew and thrived because of their geographical position and connectivity. Dewsbury because of its centrality within West Yorkshire; Huddersfield because of its position in a gap across the Pennines. The M62 is the main road artery connecting all the northern towns and cities. The key rail link joining Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York Hull, Middlesbrough and Newcastle is Transpennine enabling 18,000 Kirklees citizens to work in Leeds and 12,000 to work in Manchester.

The fact that all trains taking this route stop in Huddersfield and half in Dewsbury, gives extraordinarily good access to the heart of the Northern economy; what Osborne refers to as the Northern Powerhouse.

When Government stopped the electrification programme there was serious danger that this main route might be transferred to the Calder Valley line, bypassing Kirklees completely or that a new line connecting Leeds and Manchester would be built with fast trains not stopping between the two main cities.

This decision will give confidence to future investors that our towns are uniquely situated to access the major markets of Greater Manchester, the Leeds City Region and ports on both sides of the country.

We must now exploit the opportunity. It makes the likelihood of Platform 9 Huddersfield and opening up the Railway Warehouse more likely within Network Rails plans, which will reshape Huddersfield Town Centre and gives investors really good reason and confidence in investing in Dewsbury the literal centre point of West Yorkshire.

Trains will speed up, which means 6 trains an hour from Huddersfield to Leeds in a time of 15 minutes, Dewsbury to Leeds in 10 minutes, Huddersfield to Manchester in 25 minutes and Dewsbury to Manchester in 30 minutes.

We will now press the Combined Authority to exploit the benefits of Platform 9 and open up Huddersfield Station with access both sides and to relocate the bus station in Dewsbury nearer to the station.

The opportunity is truly transformational.