HS2: Are the transport links replacing high-speed rail new?

Every penny of the £36bn saved by scrapping high-speed rail to Manchester will be used for alternative rail, road and bus schemes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says.

But some of the schemes announced in place of HS2 have been promised before and there are question marks over others.

Although the high-speed line to Manchester has been cancelled, HS2 trains from Birmingham will still continue into the city – albeit on existing tracks.

HS2 trains need longer platforms, so it raises questions about whether passengers will only be able to get off from some carriages.

BBC Verify asked the Department for Transport whether there would be funding for longer platforms at Manchester Piccadilly.

We were pointed towards the £12bn to better connect Manchester with Liverpool. Some of this money could be used to improve the platforms, but official documents don’t say that’s what it’s for.

A dual carriageway between Morpeth and Ellingham in North East England was announced.

This has been promised before. People in the area have been waiting for this development since at least 1990, when other parts of the A1 were brought up to motorway standard.

In December 2014, former Prime Minister David Cameron announced £290m for this stretch of road. It was scheduled to be completed before 2020.

Work on a mass transit system linking Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield will receive £2.5bn.

The scheme was announced in the government’s 2021 Integrated Rail Plan, but only £100m was granted for a project then expected to cost over £2bn.

Leeds in particular has been waiting a long time for improved transport links.

A previous supertram project for the city was cancelled by Labour in 2005 and a trolleybus was scrapped in 2016 after being denied planning permission.

There will be investment of £2bn to include a “brand new” railway station in Bradford.

That was previously cancelled in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government, reinstated by Liz Truss in 2022 and axed again when Rishi Sunak took office.

Almost as quickly as they were announced, the details of some projects were amended.

Reopening the North East’s Leamside rail line – between Pelaw, Gateshead and Tursdale, County Durham – was included in the Network North report on how the £36bn would be reinvested.

That’s been changed to say it’s £100m for the West of England Combined Authority, which “could” be used for an extension of the MetroWest rail project.

Electrification of the North Wales Main Line has been given £1bn.

But electrifying the Maidenhead-Cardiff line – roughly the same length – hit nearly £2.8bn in 2016, when money went further.

So, there are questions about whether the funding will be enough.

Overall, Network North has announced more money for the South of England than for Wales.

Manchester Airport Metrolink

Nearly £1bn was announced for Manchester’s city region, with possible projects including “extending the Manchester Metrolink to Heywood, Bolton, Wigan and Manchester Airport”.

However, many people pointed out that the Metrolink was extended to Manchester Airport in 2014, and this line was later dropped.

Clifton South Tram extension

Similarly, the £1.5bn for the East Midlands mentioned the possibility of extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton South.

However, that project was completed in 2015.

Nottinghamshire MP and county council leader Ben Bradley told BBC Radio Nottingham that what “it refers to, in a Westminster not-quite-involved-in-the-detail kind of way, is opportunities around Ratcliffe-on-Soar.”

Although the Scottish government is in charge of transport infrastructure in Scotland, Mr Sunak said there would be UK government money to address pinch points on the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer.

He also said there would be better links between the Cairnryan ferry terminals serving Northern Ireland and southwest Scotland and the A77 towards Glasgow.

Councils in the areas say upgrading to dual carriageways would bring “£5bn of positive benefits”.

However, as with many of these schemes, the costs are not known and the government has not said how much will be allocated.

Of the £36bn in savings announced by the government, the majority (£30bn) will come from cancelling future work.

We have counted about £32bn of spending announced for new schemes.

There are about 15 smaller projects still to be given cash values which could account for the rest of the money.

The government says the schemes will be delivered “more quickly than HS2”.

Much of the spending for cancelled parts of HS2 was scheduled for the 2030s.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said only that “hundreds of millions” of the £36bn will be available in the next few years.

The most immediate impact of the money would be the continuation of £2 bus fares.

There is also some money for local leaders to begin planning the projects that the funding will eventually pay for.

However, schemes will still need approval before they can truly get under way.

Reporting by Robert Cuffe, Tom Edgington, Lucy Gilder, Marcus O’Brien, Anthony Reuben, Megan Riddell, Daniel Wainwright, Duncan Walker.