Scrapping Manchester's HS2 line only 'temporarily derails' city, says Andy Burnham

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Andy Burnham says the decision to cancel Manchester’s HS2 link means the city is only ‘temporarily derailed’. Speaking at a press conference following Rishi Sunak’s landmark Conservative Party Conference speech in the city, where he confirmed that high-speed rail will not come to Manchester, the Mayor said there was ‘plenty to play for’.

Mr Sunak said in his speech that the £36 billion in savings from HS2 will be used to fund a series of transport projects called ‘Network North’.

Some £20 billion of that money is earmarked for the north, and includes money for an electrified Manchester to Bradford railway line to a new station in the Yorkshire city, the retention of the £2 bus fare cap, and upgrades to the M6.

A further £12 billion will be spent on electrifying the Liverpool to Manchester line, meaning electric trains will be able to run from Liverpool to Hull. READ MORE: The Tories have insulted Greater Manchester again - it all feels very familiar READ MORE: 'You can't have both': The surreal moment Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2 to Manchester Although he agreed that there were some positive moves from the government, the Mayor argued the Network North plan failed to address the ‘main transport problem in the north of England’, namely ‘the bottlenecks in Manchester and Leeds with regards to rail capacity and strained lines between the two’.