Transport boss looking 'very seriously' at rail investment increase in north

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh is looking “very seriously” at how to increase rail investment in the north, according to Wigan MP Lisa Nandy.

It comes amid reports a 'HS2-light' railway line could be built between Birmingham and Crewe, with Nandy saying her predecessors 'seriously overcommitted to projects' they 'had no idea' how to fund.

Asked about a report in The Times suggesting the line will go ahead, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said any decisions would be announced in the Chancellor's spending review, which will be announced on October 30.

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“I think the difficulty that the Transport Secretary and the Chancellor have is that the last government seriously overcommitted to projects that they had no idea how they were going to fund from the public finances, and so it’s meant some very tough decisions," she said.

“I can’t obviously pre-empt what’s going to be in the spending review, which the Chancellor will announce in a matter of weeks.

“But I know it’s something that the Transport Secretary is looking at very seriously.”

Wigan MP Ms Nandy told Times Radio: “As a constituency MP, and also as a member of the Government, we would want to see far more investment in transport in the north of England, and far more ability for mayors and councils to be able to determine how that investment is spent.”

She suggested that east-west connectivity might be a higher priority.

“I would say that the biggest, pressing, priority in the north of England is to improve east-west connectivity. One of the reasons that people suffer absolute misery on the railways in the north is because everything gets snarled up around Manchester because the stations are very old, the platforms aren’t long enough, we simply don’t have the capacity and it causes absolute chaos from east to west.”