{"id":449146,"date":"2025-09-25T00:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449146\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T00:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:27:14","slug":"northern-powerhouse-rail-revival-will-be-announced-in-coming-weeks-amid-fears-over-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449146\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Powerhouse Rail revival ‘will be announced in coming weeks’ amid fears over delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We are determined to learn from the mistakes of the past”<\/p>\n

Nina Lloyd<\/strong> and Ian Hughes<\/strong><\/p>\n

22:23, 24 Sep 2025Updated 22:45, 24 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

An announcement had been expected at next week’s Labour Party conference(Image: Mark Waugh)<\/p>\n

Government plans to extend high-speed rail across the north of England WILL be unveiled in the coming weeks, despite fears the project would face significant delays, Government sources have said.<\/p>\n

This evening (September 24), reports suggested concerns over long-term cost could temporarily put the stoppers on the revival of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project – which is expected to include a rail link between Liverpool and Manchester.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in June that plans for the project would be published within weeks, but no details have emerged to date.<\/p>\n

An announcement had been mooted for next week’s Labour<\/a> Party conference, but a story published by the BBC<\/a> stated this would no longer happen.<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester MPs Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell were both champions of the project, but both are no longer members of the cabinet.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is understood a Government insider told the BBC an extended review process was underway in order to avoid mistakes made with the HS2 project, which has been plagued by delays and spiralling costs.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, another source has since told the PA news agency ministers were \u201ctaking time to get this right\u201d and were determined to avoid repeating the previous Tory administration\u2019s \u201cfailures\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was added that the announcement should be expected in ‘coming weeks’, and is expected to set out the scope and funding for the scheme which aimed at cutting travel time between cities in northern England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government remains fully committed to NPR (Northern Powerhouse Rail),\u201d the source told PA.<\/p>\n

\"LabourChancellor Rachel Reeves said in June that plans for the project would be published within weeks<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat the previous government\u2019s failures over HS2 and the botched Network North plan. That\u2019s why we\u2019re taking our time to get this right. We will set out our plans in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Northern Powerhouse project was first proposed by former Tory chancellor George Osborne in 2014 before being shelved under Boris Johnson\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Its aim was to boost economic growth in northern England, including through improved rail services between Liverpool and Leeds, which often suffer delays and cancellations.<\/p>\n

When former prime minister Rishi Sunak scrapped HS2 north of Birmingham, some \u00a312 billion of its budget was set aside to improve rail journeys between Manchester and Liverpool as part of NPR.<\/p>\n

Opposition critics urged ministers to \u201cget on with the job\u201d and accused Labour of failing to prioritise passengers.<\/p>\n

A Conservative spokesman said: \u201cYet again it\u2019s more big talk, and no real plans from this Labour government.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bowing down to their union paymasters with inflation busting pay rises Labour sent the signal that their donors come first, and passengers second \u2013 and the fiasco of nationalisation has been proof of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Paul Kohler said: \u201cNorthern Powerhouse Rail is essential for improving transport across the North of England and unlocking growth \u2013 this setback delays the vital boost to northern communities that they have been promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government must move quickly to resolve these issues, stop the delays and get on with the job. At the moment, this project is just as plagued by delays as actual trains.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“We are determined to learn from the mistakes of the past” Nina Lloyd and Ian Hughes 22:23, 24…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,528,2465,1836,80438,285,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-449146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-labour-party","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-network-rail","14":"tag-northern-powerhouse","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-travel","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115262104905644655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}