Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands

[whole diary]

[stuving]

While this has been mentioned already in other dispatchesthreads, I'm sure it deserves its own. The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) web page contains the main report plus a separate glossary, and this brief summery:

The Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) sets out the government’s proposals to transform the rail network in the North and Midlands.

It is a £96 billion plan that outlines how major rail projects, including HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) Phase 2b, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Midlands Rail Hub, will be delivered sooner than previous plans so that communities, towns and cities across the North and Midlands are better connected with more frequent, reliable and greener services and faster journey times.

The plan confirms that the government will:

    build 3 new high-speed lines including:
        HS2 from Crewe to Manchester
        HS2 from the West Midlands to East Midlands Parkway, enabling HS2 trains to join existing lines to serve Nottingham and Derby city centres (unlike original plans)
        a new high-speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Yorkshire, as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail

    electrify and/or upgrade 3 existing main lines including:
        the Transpennine Main Line between Manchester, Leeds and York
        the Midland Main Line between London St Pancras, the East Midlands, and Sheffield
        upgrading and improving line speeds on the East Coast Main Line

The plan also confirms that the government will progress options to complete the Midlands Rail Hub and spend £100 million to look at how best to take HS2 trains to Leeds, including assessing capacity at Leeds station and starting work on the West Yorkshire mass transit system.

There is also this DfT announcement, which is a bit longer, and the commons statement from Grant Shapps will be somewhere around as well. So, that's your homework for next week sorted.

[stuving]

And here is that Commons statement, at least in its published form.

[grahame]

Yes, it probably does deserve it's one thread and when I'm back on unterra floatica in a few hours I'll look to tidy up. 

He makes no bones about nothing for the South / West, does he?

So in total, this package is 110 miles of new high-speed line. All of it in the Midlands and the North. It is 180 miles of newly-electrified line. All of it in the Midlands and North.

No electric trains to be seen on Oxford or Bristol Temple Meads or Salisbury, then.  Any chance of announcements for the South West, or is the positive news there limited to Okehampton, study funding, and trains every 30 minutes on the Isle of Wight from next month, Marsh Barton, Reading Green Park and Manajana Parkway on the Severn Beach line?  How about through trains to Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon from London in 2022?

[Red Squirrel]

Further to the MRH stuff (Bordesley Chord) I referred to here, there's more here:

The Midlands Rail Hub will allow seamless interchange at Birmingham between HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) and long-distance services from South Wales and the South West, reducing Bristol- Manchester journey time by at least an hour.

Welcome thought the change from New St to Moor St might be, isn't it a bit of a stretch to call the interchange 'seamless'? https://goo.gl/maps/ZUuppVWzK1bCNdFm9

[Sulis John]

"So in total, this package is 110 miles of new high-speed line. All of it in the Midlands and the North. It is 180 miles of newly-electrified line. All of it in the Midlands and North."

To be fair - this is the "Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands". I'm not sure where the southern boundary of "Midlands" is, but wherever it is, this wouldn't be the right document for anything south of it. Question is - where is the "Integrated Rail Plan for the South and West"?

[infoman]

and still no mention of ticket gates being installed at Sheffield.

[grahame]

Question is - where is the "Integrated Rail Plan for the South and West"?

Yep!

[TonyN]

Question is - where is the "Integrated Rail Plan for the South and West"?

The treasury kept it they where short of loo paper.

[Western Pathfinder]

What's left after it's been used as a substitute for loo paper is buried in a filing cabinet in a locked basement behind a sign saying beware of the leopard!..

[broadgage]

Important features of an "integrated rail plan" include.

1) Partial electrification, give up part way through due to escalating costs and disruption. Call for research into batteries and hydrogen.

2) Shorter trains. Innovative no doubt, flexible perhaps, world beating of course, purpose designed naturally. Still shorter.

3) A new centralised signaling system that is less reliable than that it replaces.

Exploding pigeons are an optional extra.

[Surrey 455]

Welcome thought the change from New St to Moor St might be, isn't it a bit of a stretch to call the interchange 'seamless'? https://goo.gl/maps/ZUuppVWzK1bCNdFm9

I haven't read all the info yet. Are you sure that the interchange is between Moor St and New St, because that's not what your map says.

[ellendune]

What kind of electrification between Leeds and Manchester has a gap between Huddersfield and Staybridge?  Or have I missed something. 

[JayMac]

What's left after it's been used as a substitute for loo paper is buried in a filing cabinet in a locked basement behind a sign saying beware of the leopard!..

Is Mr A. Dent's house in the way of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s))? 

[Western Pathfinder]

Not any more by the looks of things.

[infoman]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) breakfast news reporting LIVE from Sheffield on Friday 19 november