Northern leaders still don’t have the detail behind government’s cut-price rail plan

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Government has so far failed to explain the detailed reasoning behind its decision to scale back long-promised plans for Northern high-speed rail links, two months after its Integrated Rail Plan was published.

When the IRP was published on November 18 it prompted outrage across the North of England, particularly in Yorkshire, after it emerged that the original proposal for a new line between Manchester and Leeds had been significantly reduced amid a halving of the proposed network’s budget.

Hull was left off the high-speed map, while the eastern leg of HS2 was axed. Manchester’s request for an underground station at Piccadilly, in order to avoid huge swathes of prime city centre land being taken up and rail lines running out over Ardwick on stilts, was dismissed as too expensive and unnecessary. READ MORE: HS2 Manchester will 'define the north for centuries' if correct railway station built, says Andy Burnham A paper drawn up by officials at Transport for the North, due to be considered by northern leaders at a meeting in Manchester tomorrow, now reveals that ministers have failed to explain the detailed reasoning behind those decisions.

It means northern leaders and transport experts cannot assess the plan in further depth - or tell whether the Treasury has genuinely shifted its approach to funding projects outside of London and the South East. “The evidence base behind the IRP remains unpublished, despite requests from both members and officers,” says the paper. “Without further information, TfN officers remain unable to determine how key decisions have been reached or if the approach outlined in the new Treasury green book has been followed.” TfN’s request for a meeting with Grant Shapps, the transport