• Plans unveiled for Northern Powerhouse Rail, the biggest transformation of Northern travel and infrastructure in decades.
• Major investment will deliver faster commutes, better jobs, and new homes for working people across Northern towns and cities.
• will provide faster, more frequent services across Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, York, Newcastle, and Hull.

Residents of the Liverpool City Region and people across the North of England will benefit from faster commutes, better jobs, more homes and increased investment in their communities as the Government launches a major growth plan for the North – with Northern Powerhouse Rail at its heart.

Backed by Mayor Steve Rotheram, along with other Northern mayors, the plans will see the delivery of the biggest transformation to travel in the North in a generation, with the Chancellor pledging more than a billion pound to Northern Powerhouse Rail over the Spending Review period, with a funding cap of £45 billion for the programme in total.

The funding will allow progress on planning, development, and design work to be made which will unlock benefits for the people of the North from the 2030s.

Plans will see a new rail route built between Liverpool and Manchester, running via Manchester Airport and Warrington.

The scheme will also deliver improved connections across the Pennines between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York. Regular services will run onward to Newcastle via Darlington and Durham; Hull; and Chester for North Wales connections.

This will be preceded by the first phase of the programme, which will build on the success of the Transpennine Upgrade scheme to create faster and better rail links between Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds and York, and Leeds and Bradford.

In the North-East, development work on the Leamside Line will also be taken forward alongside Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Connectivity in the North lags behind the South. Where a Paddington to Reading rail journey of 35 miles takes just 22 minutes, a rail journey between Liverpool and Manchester Airport of just 29 miles can take 1 hour and 25 minutes, stopping 21 times. This landmark upgrade to travel will reduce journey times like these in the North.

This landmark upgrade to rail travel is one of the central building blocks of a northern growth corridor from Liverpool to York – which has the potential to rival some of the most successful growth corridors in Europe, like the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany and the Randstad in the Netherlands.

The new growth drive will strengthen connections between some of the fastest growing city regions in the country, boosting connectivity and helping to supercharge growth by supporting development, housebuilding and a greater number of opportunities for businesses to invest and expand.

The project will also support new, skilled jobs for the planning, development, design and construction of the project. The Government is working closely with employers and local leaders to help fill local skills gaps and local colleges across the country are already set to receive £570 million to expand their training facilities.

The newly announced investment comes on the back of several years of record level funding for transport projects across the Liverpool City Region, including the rollout of a £500m fleet of state-of-the-art trains, rapid progress to bring the bus system back into public control, the extension of the Merseyrail network to Headbolt Lane in Kirkby and the building of the first new Mersey Ferry in more than 60 years.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Two hundred years ago, we built the world’s first passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester – and changed history. After more than a decade of dither, delay and broken promises, this is the start of a new era, with a genuinely strategic approach and a government finally backing Northern Powerhouse Rail in full.”

“A creaking rail system has held the North back for too long. Our journeys aren’t just slower – our growth has been slower too. Poor connectivity doesn’t just hold people back – it holds our economy back. It limits our productivity, restricts freight capacity, and chokes off opportunity.

“Today that changes. This is the kind of ambition we’ve been crying out for. Not another empty slogan or back of a fag packet plan but real investment, delivered in a proper partnership with local leaders that will unleash our latent potential and unlock growth in all of our communities right across the great North.”

Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said: “I spent three happy years in Leeds as a university student, a vibrant city I was proud to call home. But I’ve seen first hand what underinvestment and empty pledges do to cities across the North.

“A reliable commute, a secure job, a thriving town centre – these are all things that everyone should expect. But over and over again people in Northern communities, from Liverpool and Manchester to York and Newcastle have been let down by broken promises.

“This cycle has to end. No more paying lip service to the potential of the North, but backing it to the hilt.

“That’s why this government is rolling up its sleeves to deliver real, lasting change for millions of people through Northern Powerhouse Rail: a major new rail network across the North that will deliver faster, more frequent services.

“This investment is proof we’re putting our money where our mouth is, working with local leaders to deliver the transport links that will help working people do what they need to in life – getting to work, taking the kids to school, or days out with the family.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said: “If economic growth is the challenge, investment and renewal is the solution. That’s why we’re reversing years of chronic underinvestment in the North.

“Our transformative plans will create jobs, build homes and unlock opportunities for businesses to invest. That’s how we deliver economic growth, a renewed Britain and more money in working people’s pockets.”

Northern Powerhouse Rail will be kept within a fair funding envelope over its entire construction period to ensure it remains good value for taxpayers both now and in the future. A funding cap of £45 billion will be set for the programme. £1.1 billion over the Spending Review period is the first stage of this, allowing development and design work to progress and enabling the creation of a detailed delivery plan which will include timings.

Alongside this, to support and build on the strategic ambition for the project, the Government has set out its intention in the long term to build a new rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.