Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the implementation of the Integrated Rail Plan; and if he will make a statement.

Significant progress has been made since we published the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP).

Delivery of High Speed Two (HS2) between London and the West Midlands is well underway. I reported on the programme’s latest construction milestones in my 6-monthly update to Parliament in June, such as the circa 14.5 miles driven by HS2’s tunnel boring machines. In parallel, the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill was introduced into Parliament in January 2022. Select Committee members have been appointed and the committee is hearing petitions against the bill and its additional provisions.

In partnership with Network Rail and HS2 Ltd, feasibility work on Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is being completed, with formal development to follow. Around £2 billion of NPR scope has already been included in the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill and the Transpennine Route Upgrade has been augmented to include scope for NPR.

The Government has approved over £2.9 billion of funding for the Transpennine Route Upgrade – which includes the current work between Manchester and Stalybridge. The total cost of the TRU programme is estimated to be between £9.0bn and £11.5bn. This is the first step towards improving train services between major areas in the North of England by the middle of this decade as well as laying the groundwork for the NPR system.

In 2022, we started the main works to electrify the Midland Mainline between Kettering and Market Harborough, laying the foundation for the planned upgrade of the line to Nottingham and Sheffield.

On the 17 July 2023, the DfT published the HS2 to Leeds Study terms of reference. In our response to the Transport Select Committee, we also committed to reconsidering the case for better connectivity at Bradford, including the potential for a new station.