Thursday 15th January 2026
“Cynicism”?
It’s hardly surprising.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Rail investment: a brief history in 20 headlines
Thursday 15th January 2026
“Cynicism”?
It’s hardly surprising.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
A wonderful reflection by Roger on Northern Rail fairytale. Starmer’s political broadcast last night was pure fantasy. Where’s he going to next as the man wanders the world.??
the Wandering Busman.
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Why pick on just Starmer? Doesn’t Roger’s excellent piece show that one or two others might be to blame as well?
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Glad it’s not just me then.
Darryl in Dorset.
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Brilliant, thanks as always Roger. RC
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Two words, Leeds trams
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Absolutely. I had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting through some of the meetings had with consultants about the latest tram proposal and the amount of feet dragging and money wasted was shocking. Sadly I have little faith that northern powerhouse rail will happen.
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This seems to be the spirit of the times. Probably now is the moment for coming up with rail – and bus – infrastructure projects which can be substantially completed before the next election. If a Farage led government is next, who is to say what will not be cancelled?
If the main point of NPR is a faster route connecting Manchester and Leeds, get a simpler route designed and started a.s.a.p. If it is to give Bradford a better rail connection, that can be done – just make the prime consideration that it must be done quickly – even if we end up with not such a good final outcome.
In London, Crossrail 2 is already in the long grass: it may be the best long-term option, but if it is never built that is no compensation. But there are other ways to link terminals – how about connecting the Waterloo Wimbledon suburbans to the Overground Weavers from Liverpool Street, by enlarging the Waterloo and City tunnels. Don’t go in for Elizabeth Line style gold-plating (no awards for architects) just the minimum necessary to get the line up and running quickly!
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Why do they NEED a faster route from Leeds to Manchester? There are already two trains an hour taking about 55 minutes? It seems to me politicians will only consider big, headline grabbing, projects when much more could be achieved by simply improving what is there – junction and signalling upgrades increase reliability, while spending money on more rolling stock would avoid people being crammed into two or three-car units for long journeys.
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55 minutes for 36 miles? That’s why faster journeys are needed between two of the north’s major cities…
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The only problem with that is Crossrail 2 will have to be built to be future proofed. Victoria Line, Piccadilly Line, Northern Line, Liverpool Street and Waterloo are all under strain from current demand. Liverpool Street expanded its gateline by removing a number of shops showing the issues already. WAML at full capacity with no serious urgent plan for 4 tracking.
Elizabeth Line was built as future proofed and already getting far higher demand than expected, doing a cheap job would’ve been a disaster. In London, the infrastructure (or administrative boundaries/ devolution) can not keep up with the challenges. Everywhere else in the country, the government seems to want to give up entirely, as nothing is happening before the 2030s! Doesn’t bode well for the economy in the future.
London area may have started from a higher base but I feel we are all being failed by our politicians.
Aaron
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Why is it so difficult to improve the service between Liverpool and Manchester history indicates that there were 4 lines built between Manchester and Liverpool. All 4 seem to still exist in some form but only two provide through services
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Kicked deep into the long grass once again.
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It is bizarre that electrification west and north form Sheffield is now being proposed a few months after wires on the MML was ‘paused.’ (Euphemism).
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I realise that Roger’s article is looking specifically at NPR, but I can’t help but feel that the dithering over electrification is another rather tragic failure. The bi-mode excuse is a sticking plaster solution, and trying to invest in full 25 kV AC overhead lines still will deliver best value and reliability in the future. Yes, I realise the massive cost overruns for the GWR scheme but surely 12 coach class 387 units have genuinely transformed the performance of these lines now? The skills keep being trained and then thrown away which is one of the main costs.
One wonders what other improvements can be made on key arterial routes, yes MML Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham but other parts of the North and Midlands in future could provide a step change in railway performance and services.
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Didn’t we once have an electrified link between Sheffield and Manchester? I’m sure there was also a nice new tunnel at its summit built at the same time.
I wonder what happened to it…
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It was useful for coal but much less so for passengers.
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Always entertaining to hear from industry spectators who, if they were in positions of influence in government, feel they would do a much better job. Brightens up a grey Thursday.
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i suspect they would turn out like those Reform councillors: totally out of their depth when faced with the reality of governing.
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And then if Reform get in in 2029 they’ll cancel it all as they don’t believe in public transport.
Steve
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It will be unaffordable anyway as the economy will tank as the international markets panic at the prospect of aTruss-style government on steroids.
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Government like these big announcements, but when it comes to delivering anything it probably
A – gets quietly forgotten and kicked into the long grass since there is a general election and there’s no money left in the piggy bank, or
B – Realise that they cant deliver the whole plan to budget and cut bits out, or
C – The projects gets delivered but late and over budget.
The country is littered with half built infrastructure projects and I fear this will be the same..
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Whilst the political point-scoring at every opportunity against Reform gets a little tedious, the stark fact remains that Politicians can and do promise the earth over rail projects, knowing full well they will be safely in the House of Lords (or coining it in “big business”) when the usual disastrous cost over-runs are revealed a decade down the line. But we live in a democracy, so it is up to us to vote according to our beliefs. Sadly, for most, that would actually mean new roads and unrestricted car use. Rail projects sound great, but actually impact on only a few.
Thanks to our Chinese “friends”, who apparently let a deadly virus “escape” (why would a Country develop such a thing unless to create havoc?), the resultant financial chaos inflicted on us and seemingly forgotten by most people, has simply made grand schemes of any sort unaffordable. So depending on who is in No 10, these promises or otherwise will continue to be made at every opportunity to keep the masses happy, and in the full knowledge, whilst desirable, cannot be afforded whilst they mis-spend our money elsewhere.
Terence Uden
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U.K. politicians of all political persuasions have absolutely no idea how to procure or manage high value projects of any kind. Our military will attest to this as countless projects have either over-run original budgets &/or been eventually cancelled. The lesson here surely is once state funded projects are agreed then ensure the treasury build in penalty clauses that keep contractors focussed. Equally, contractors should negotiate their own penalty clauses should a change of government result in changes or cancellations. If this is already the case, then it just confirms how inept the system is.
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In many cases, it is the client making changes to the agreed specification that causes cost overruns. HS2 is possibly a prime example – additional tunnels added to satisfy local opinion that were never in the original spec – but many public procurement projects suffer from this disease. Particularly so where political control changes part way through.
KCC
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I’m age 68 and three quarters & I doubt I’ll be seeing (never mind riding on!) Leeds trams or any of this NPR upgrade in the rest of my lifetime
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I haven’t heard or read any of the recent ministers’ statements on the various northern mainline rail upgrades, but I did read the Gov.uk press release. That isn’t a thing of beauty and has some awful typos and weird grammar in it. If that’s the substance of the new announcement then we don’t get to learn much. The new Liverpool to Manchester line is stage 2. Stage 1 might be a package of stuff in west Yorkshire including Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield, and presumably sweeps up the TRU (Transpennine Route Upgrade) that is in full construction mode now, and has included electrification between Leeds and York as an integral part. Stage 3 seems to be something else between Manchester and Leeds, presumably a vague amalgam of the changes in Manchester and the yet to be funded western part of the TRU. Then there’s Birmingham to Manchester, whose only substance is a promise not to sell any land bought for HS2 stage 2A.
The pile of dust left by Rishi Sunak includes any new line between Birmingham and Leeds. That, to me, seemed to be the one link that would be a real upgrade to the UK’s rail network, rather than just a capacity increase. Meanwhile, the Handsacre Junction problem is just being left for the rail operators to struggle with.
Stuart S
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The quickest / easiest thing to deliver would be not letting HS2A permissions fall away at the end of February. Worth extending even if nowt built for a while.
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Liverpool to Manchester is a short distance and with Warrington in between, No benefit in HS just a lot of extra cost
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Funny how the French have managed to build a network of TGV lines across the country and beyond to Spain and other destinations. Dealing with differing nations did cause some delays but they got there in the end. Meanwhile we still squabble. We have a good record on building tunnels once the go ahead is given but not so good on fitting them out afterwards. This from the country that pioneered rail travel.
Martin W
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Hope you have kept a copy of your post. You will need it again in a few weeks / months / years time with the addition of updates ….. or should that be “downdates”?
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It is shocking how many empty promises there have been. Perhaps we need some more realistic projects like a rolling electrification programme, signalling renewal, level crossings and allowing upgrades, accessibility improvements and gauging improvements to allow intermodal freight to use more of the network. If they can do all that then maybe we can think of building a new high speed line but currently even the smallest railway projects run hideously over budget.
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Just what constitutes the “Northern Powerhouse”? Ask most of the electorate in northern England and they probably don’t have clue what it is. Similarly, they could be asked “what is a combined authority” to produce the same response. It’s all a bit “emperors new clothes” from politicians who largely can’t/won’t be able to answer these same questions without briefing notes.
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And this is why it costs so much to build things! Who would have the confidence to work with such flaky politicians? We need to just get on with it! We need a strategic long term rail plan with rolling improvements, electrification and new lines. Spain built 2500 miles of High Speed Rail since 1992, enough to connect most of it with Madrid in a couple hours and they are still building more! We need to learn from them.
Aaron
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We have Great British Railways, mainly for England. But the North gets local authorities can do their own thing, liverpool, still separated by warrington from Manchester which adjoins in part West Yorkshire which is next to the tiny collective of South Yorkshire. Newcastle is neatly self contained and Bristol might get to make its own decisions. Overall a mess and the latest coloured map of northern shows effectively the little area plans effectively. Stillh doesn’t join Skipton to Colne
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Brilliant list of headlines , beautifully illustrates the failed neo-liberal state’s inability to do basic government stuff. Given that stage 1 isn’t starting until 2030 I’m sure there will be plenty more headlines to come, but alas no railway.
Here is how a competent country would do it.
https://www.freewheeling.info/blog/swiss-hs2?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Peter Brown
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