SELRAP Newsletter Interactive 4pm 20th feb 2026 - Flipbook - Page 7
NATIONAL RAIL NEWS
New Priori琀椀es
High Speed Hiatus
Despite dropping the Conserva琀椀ves’
Restore Your Railways programme,
Labour is funding a few re-openings (see
pages 20-21). Signi昀椀cantly, those moving
forward are championed by their elected
mayors.
They include the £5 billion “Varsity Line”,
linking Oxford and Cambridge. The two
prosperous university ci琀椀es already
enjoy excellent rail services. The Green
Book bias (see page 19) explains why
they are receiving funding, unlike the
Skipton-to-Colne Line.
Here “up North,” all proposals, including
Leeds/Bradford’s long-promised
Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) System, are
s琀椀ll pending. West Yorkshire, with a
popula琀椀on of 2.5 million, is Europe’s
largest city region without one.
To get ministerial buy-in for the “Missing
Link,” it is now vital that Northern
leaders promote the many strategic
bene昀椀ts its restora琀椀on would bring.
Following Rishi Sunak’s cancella琀椀on of
HS2’s two northern legs in 2023, the
government has commi琀琀ed (January
2026) £10 billon to fund tunnelling into
London’s Euston sta琀椀on.
The net impact of
these two decisions
is the en琀椀re taxpayerfunded cost of HS2
- £47 billion so far and
rising by £7.5 billion
each year – stands to
Richard Tice
only bene昀椀t the South.
Meanwhile, in his foreword to
September 2025 Policy Exchange report,
Instead of High-Speed Rail, Reform’s
deputy leader Richard Tice wrote that,
if elected to power, his party will scrap
high speed rail and instead priori琀椀se
“conven琀椀onal rail and roads that help
ordinary folk get to work.”
HS2’s huge price tag could have paid
for the en琀椀re Skipton-Colne Line many
琀椀mes over.
HS2 viaduct crossing the Grand Union Canal at Colne, Buckinghamshire
7
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