Rail to get £96bn injection to 'transform service'

Details of a £96bn investment that the prime minister vows will transform Britain's rail network are set to be unveiled on Thursday.

The Midlands and North of England will get the bulk of the money, which is being touted as the biggest ever public investment in rail.

It comes amid anger the government is to axe a leg of the HS2 high speed line between the East Midlands and Leeds.

Boris Johnson will argue the new package will deliver benefits sooner.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says the IRP will improve journey times and capacity "from London and across the Pennines" and "strengthen connections between major cities in the North and Midlands".

There will also be a focus on improving local services, the DfT said, with some projects delivered 10 years earlier than planned.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's formal announcement, Mr Johnson said: "If we are to see levelling up in action now, we must rapidly transform the services that matter to people most.

"That's why the Integrated Rail Plan will be the biggest transport investment programme in a century, delivering meaningful transport connections for more passengers across the country, more quickly - with both high-speed journeys and better local services, it will ensure no town or city is left behind."

The IRP was initiated after the 2020 Oakervee Review into major transport schemes including HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

The prime minister has come under pressure recently over claims the government intends to "water down" planned rail upgrades in North England.

There is frustration that improvements to the NPR east-west connections across the North are likely to involve upgrades to existing infrastructure, rather than a new line between Manchester and Leeds.

Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said on Tuesday he was "absolutely appalled", claiming the region would be "bypassed" when new routes were developed elsewhere.

There have also been reports that although HS2 trains will still serve Leeds, they will be put on mainline tracks north of the East Midlands rather than on high-speed lines. This could save tens of billions of pounds.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Tuesday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "[People in the North] should definitely feel optimistic.

"Not only are we going to spend a huge amount of money doing this, we are going to deliver it decades before it would have otherwise happened."

He added that if he was transport secretary 15 years ago with responsibility for HS2, then "I would have started in the North and moved south, I think that would have made sense".

He went on: "The Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Midlands Connect - all of those did not exist when HS2 was first mooted, but we are where we are and it's being built and we need to make sure we connect it all up and that's what the Integrated Rail Plan intends to achieve."

However Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, accused the government of using "smoke and mirrors", while breaking its promises.

"HS2 was meant to be a world-beater, and put Britain, the country which gave the railway to the world, back on the industrial and economic map. Instead, the Tories are letting us down," he said.

"This government is a government of broken promises. It has announced Northern Powerhouse Rail an incredible 60 times - and I know because we've counted - and now it puts the project in the bin."