Member Article

Chancellor sets wheels in motion on £600m Northern Hub project

A £600 million Manchester rail project which is expected to create 20,000 jobs is set to get underway later today.

The upgrade to the rail network in and around the city - the Northern Hub - aims to increase passenger capacity by 44 million a year.

The Northern Hub project aims to electrify lines and improve the network in and around Manchester by 2019.

Chancellor George Osborne will announce the start of the project later. The first phase is a £20 million Manchester airport project, building a fourth platform, thus increasing capacity and allowing direct connections from Bradford, Halifax and Rochdale.

Two new platforms will also be built at Manchester Piccadilly station and track widening at Oxford Road station will allow longer and more frequent trains.

Under the plans, two extra trains will run an hour between Liverpool and Manchester by December 2016.

It also aims to increase the number of hourly trains between Manchester and Leeds and reduce journey times between the two cities by ten minutes.

Simon Bedford, partner at Deloitte Real Estate, said: “It’s great news that work has commenced on the Northern Rail Hub upgrades as it signifies that necessary improvements to infrastructure in the region are progressing. The immediate benefit of a project of this size getting underway is the opportunity for job creation which in turn boosts the local economy by providing security and spending power for people in proximity of the project.

“In the long term, improvements to the connectivity of Manchester Airport and Airport City will greatly improve the attractiveness of both facilities. More people will chose to fly from Manchester if they can reach it more easily and the businesses situated at Airport City will greatly benefit from improved commuter access and increased rail freight capacity.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .