Following discussions at the Transport for the North Board meeting last week, Chief Executive Barry White has written to Mayor Dan Jarvis, the Board Member for Sheffield City Region.
Dear Mayor Jarvis
I thought it would be worthwhile clarifying the discussion at Transport for the North (TfN) Board last week with regards to Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and the position taken by Sheffield City Region (SCR).
The point being made was that by better connecting the North as a whole, we can make the sum greater than the individual parts. Greater road and rail connectivity across the Pennines is fundamental to achieving the economic ambitions of the North, both to connect the great city region economies of the North, but also to ensure wider access to opportunities for our towns, villages and communities right across the Southern Pennines corridor from Liverpool City Region to Hull and North Lincolnshire.
That is why we have worked in partnership with your organisation to bring forward clear and credible proposals to government, both on NPR and the Transpennine Tunnel. In recent months we have supported closely your Integrated Rail Plan, including proposals for new stations at Dearne Valley, Rotherham, Doncaster, and Sheffield Airport. Our shared ambition is also to extend Tram Train from Rotherham to Doncaster. The result will mean more seats, on new faster trains, direct to more locations across the North and beyond. We will now work with you to deliver the Integrated Rail Plan, including the committed improvements to the Hope Valley Line.
Our Strategic Transport Plan (STP), agreed by the TfN Board in February 2019, sets out a preferred option for connecting Sheffield to Manchester through a significant upgrade of the Hope Valley line. Upgrading the Hope Valley line rather than build a new line could allow an earlier start and deliver earlier benefits to the travelling public, doubling the number of trains to 4 per hour, and reducing the overall journey time from nearly an hour today to around 40 minutes with NPR. We continue to work with your officers to understand how that journey time could be further reduced. As you know, the NPR programme contains a range of alternative options and we have clearly said that we have not ruled out the option of a new line between Sheffield and Manchester, if the significant upgrades to Hope Valley do not look promising in terms of delivering a transformational level of connectivity. The latter is a position agreed prior to you joining our Board, but which remains as commitment by TfN to SCR and is stated in the STP.
We have been strongly advocating on behalf of all of our Board for a commitment of £39 billion from the Government for NPR – this a is a huge investment in the North of England that will without doubt bring huge benefits to the SCR, bringing 3 million more people within 90 minutes of Sheffield Midland station. As I emphasised when the Prime Minister spoke in Manchester in July, NPR must be agreed, funded and delivered as a single network to achieve the outcome of a connected and integrated northern rail network fit for the next century and beyond.
I would like to assure you that there was no intention to suggest that the ambition of SCR was being limited and, furthermore, nor was that ambition in anyway being diluted through TfN. I would like to personally apologise if the discussion has been wrongly interpreted.
I look forward over the coming months to working with yourself and other members in making this case heard in central government.
Kind regards,
Barry White
Chief Executive
Transport for the North