Rail investment: a brief history in 20 headlines

Thursday 15th January 2026

“Cynicism”?

It’s hardly surprising.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

51 thoughts on “Rail investment: a brief history in 20 headlines”

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  1. 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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    1. 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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  5. 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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    1. 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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      2. It’s undeniable that the economy of the North is held back by poor public transport, and connections between major cities are too slow, often too infrequent, and often short on capacity. For two major cities that are so close to each other, the journey between Leeds and Manchester is dismally slow. Sure, it’s not the only journey that needs to be sped up, but it’s a key link in the network and fixing that would be a big step forwards.

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    2. 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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  6. 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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    1. None of them are really suitable for high speed, high frequency services. They’ve got intermediate stations on them, they often follow slow alignments, and upgrading lines in situ is a slow, expensive and disruptive service (as people travelling around the Huddersfield area can tell you). Running additional services on a line built and specced for freight would not be fast enough to attract passengers between the two cities.

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      1. Neither is a line that makes station stops every 10-15 miles particularly suited to high speed running either. The journey times claimed yesterday work out to something like an average of 120mph, which simply isn’t practical if the train has to call at Liverpool South Parkway (or even Airport), Warrington Bank Quay Low Level, Manchester Airport and central Manchester. High speed trains from Frankfurt Hbf to the city’s airport take exactly the same time as a local S Bahn.

        And I’m not actually clear how much is new – is it just Manchester Airport to Warrington?

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  8. 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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    1. 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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    2. 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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  9. 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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    2. Most “industry spectators” when pushed would settle for a rolling programme of electrification, some marginal reopenings (Ivanhoe Line) and a logical rolling stock procurement policy. So yes, they would do a much better job than the vastly expensive and useless political and civil service system we have at present.

      Many of the ideas for HS2 from the amateurs were considerably better than the actual design since they recognised the need for through stations in the big cities not the stupidity of dead-ends like Curzon Street, and that the vast cost inflation caused by gold-plating the environmental migitations would eventually sink the entire scheme.

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      1. Curzon Street being a dead end may not be that stupid. It depends whether the plan is to run high-speed services calling at Birmingham en route to points further north, or run separate services London <> Birmingham, London <> northern cities and Birmingham <> northern cities.

        Doing the latter wipes a fair amount off the journey time between the capital and northern cities, as it avoids the need for the train to decelerate from high speed to a stop, spend a short while stationary in Birmingham, than accelerate to regain high speed.

        If you look to France, and the high speed line to Lyon, it by-passes the city. Trains from Paris to Lyon generally terminate there, serving city’s main station (Part-Dieu) after leaving the high speed line. Trains from Paris to the Mediterranean coast (Marseille and points east towards Nice; Montpellier and points west towards Barcelona) by-pass the city with just a small calling at St Exupéry near the city’s airport. High-speed trains from Lyon to the Mediterranean coast either start from Lyon (Part-Dieu) or call there on their way from Lille or Brussels – having skirted to the east of Paris.

        Malc M

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    1. 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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    2. Accelerate Transport Infrastructure
      Focus on our coastal regions, Wales, the North, and
      the Midlands. Improve existing rail and road links.
      Integrated services are critical.

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  11. 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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  12. 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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  13. 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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    1. 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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  14. 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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  15. 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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  16. 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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  17. 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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    1. @Martin W – one key differnece between the UK and France is that the population density in France, outside the major conurbations, is very sparse. I imagine that makes it easier to develop high speed lines, with fewer locals to object to the new railway spoiling their views of the countryside (isn’t that why so much of HS2 has ended up in tunnel or cutting, adding to its costs?)

      That said, high speed lines have been developed across a number of other countries including the relatively densely-populated Netherlands as well as Belgium and Germany.

      Malc M

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      1. I travelled down to Avignon on the TGV some years ago and noted that the new station was some distance out of the town. This was due to the directness of the high speed line and contrasted with the established station, close to the town.

        When I mentioned this to my host, I was told that the residents had petitioned for the new line to be built closer to the town and were disappointed by the distance.

        What a contrast with British petitioners on HS2 and other new proposed lines !

        Peter Murnaghan

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        1. @Peter Murnaghan – I have a similar experience of Avignon, arriving one evening on the AVE from Madrid.

          The TGV station is not conveniently situated for the town at all, the shuttle train between the two had just left as I arrived. I would have happily walked into the town, but could not find a clear walking route. So having arrived at “Avignon”, I had a half-hour wait for the shuttle to do that last bit into Avignon proper. Similar when I left, on a TGV to Lille, having to be on the shuttle train from Avignon some time before the high speed train was due from Avignon TGV. Less attractive journey times to and from the town.

          There are a few of these out-of-town “parkway” stations on the French high speed network. I’m not convinced they serve their nearby towns effectively. To me, one of the attractions of long-distance (and high-speed) train travel is being able to travel seamlessly city centre to city centre.

          Malc M

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  18. 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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  19. 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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  20. 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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  21. 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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  22. 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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  24. An absolute disgrace, no wonder our public transport system never seems to improve (especially in the north) when there is no coordination or commitment within government. There is however plenty of rhetoric and political point scoring, pretending to want better transport when all they’re really interested in doing is appeasing the motorist, i.e. business as usual.

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  25. I fancy that today’s projects compare very unfavourably with the great engineers of the past yet are any of Roger’s readers in a position to tell me if Brunel’s GWR schemes were built to the original construction schedule and were always on budget. I know of one which was delayed: the Severn Tunnel, over budget, considerably delayed owing to the Great Spring bursting in on the workings from the Welsh side of the river. More powerful pumping engines needed to be ordered and considering the water ingress extant today I am astonished that the line was electrified!

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    1. Brunel’s record was less than perfect. In particular, his dalliance with atmospheric traction has left a legacy of a steeply graded railway from Newton Abbot to Plymouth that remains problematic even today. The bit that did run as an atmospheric railway, south from Exeter on the flattish bit alongside the coast, lasted a mere four years before requiring expensive modification for normal use.

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  26. Is rail that important to the economy ? Only about 8% of people travel by rail. The Average commute is less than 10 miles and that figure includes London take London out of the equation and the average commute is probably a lot lower

    The above tend to suggest investing in better bus services would offer a much higher benefit at a lot lower cost and would be lot quicker to deliver

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    1. If it wasn’t for the hills Leeds would be a walkable city though out in Otley the two train routes we had were taken away, now a good 45 min to get to Leeds City due to headingly congestion. When I was in North Meanwood buses basically every half hour unless walk to a joint stop if in London prob would be every 20 mins

      JBC Prestatyn

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  27. Within hours of the announcement on Wednesday all three regional Mayors in Yorkshire asked the government for additional tax raising powers, otherwise they will not be able to provide their share of the funding.

    In addition Tracy Brabin (West Yorkshire) has asked to be treated as a special case with additional government funding as she has to find a large amount of money for the Leeds Tram Project. This was given the go ahead, with much fanfare, a few months ago with spades in the ground in 2028 but has already been ‘paused’ while Lord Hendy re-evaluates the financial business case.

    Finally I suspect the reason improvements end at York, rather than continue to the end of the line at Hull, is because Hull and East Yorkshire elected a Reform Regional Mayor.

    George Hawkings

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  28. What an absolute mess. I’ve never understood the obsession of reducing journey times between Liverpool and Manchester. There are already two trains per hour that complete the journey in less than 35 minutes. How much quicker can you realistically make it, and would it be worth the cost? Time for a bit of realism, but I’ve been saying that for 15 years!

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