IF you ever feel unloved by this Government – with its power base 200 miles to the South – then George Osborne is on a mission to change that.
The Chancellor is preparing to woo Northern voters in a bid to convince you to give the Tories another look.
Come the autumn ‘mini-Budget’, expect a charm offensive promising lashings of cash for infrastructure in the North and greater powers for its big cities. For example, I’m confident the feasibility study into a dual carriageway on the A1 all the way to Scotland will conclude it should go ahead – highlighting Labour’s 13-year failure to build it.
And Mr Osborne will go further in exploring an ‘HS3’ high-speed rail line across the Pennines, to create a “Northern Powerhouse” of better-connected city economies.
Even in sleepy August, the TV cameras captured the Chancellor wearing a yellow hard hat on some Northern building site – ramming home the message that his sleeves were already rolled up. It all sounds very exciting and is a reminder that Mr Osborne – despite his toff image – is a Northern MP, on the edge of Manchester, with a personal interest in closing the North-South divide.
However, and here’s the rub, there is gaping hole in this strategy of transforming transport to boost the North’s economy – a hole that is getting deeper, fast. For weeks, bad-news stories about local rail services in the North have been spreading like a rash, ahead of new contracts for the Northern Rail and TransPennine Express franchises.
First, ministers warned that fares may have to soar on cheaper – subsidised – Northern routes, under plans to wipe out stark price differences across the country.
Commuters in the region pay up to 60 per cent for short journeys, apparently, a gap long justified because of lower incomes and the older trains passengers must endure.
Then it emerged that services may be culled at scores of less-used stations, including 20- odd in the North-East and North Yorkshire, many on the picturesque Esk Valley Line.
Not far behind was Northern Rail’s announcement that cheaper, off-peak tickets will be invalid during the weekday evening rush hour – a clear attempt to price passengers off busy trains.
Now – as I revealed this week – ministers are preparing to allow those decrepit ‘Pacer’ trains to be “modernised” rather than replaced, as previously promised. This looming U-turn means the 30-year-old vehicles – buses on tracks, basically – will be with you for another decade, with all the noise, cold, dirt and delays that brings.
So, welcome to the Northern Powerhouse!
Higher fares, fewer services and rundown trains from the Thatcher era – trains that would spark blood-soaked riots if put in front of passengers in Surrey or Berkshire.
This is clearly a nonsense – and one that cannot be disguised by promises of glitzy high-speed trains in some distant future, or by a new road north of Newcastle.
Yes, the Government has to play catch-up on decades of neglect of Northern transport… but, instead, is planning more of the same. No-one will be fooled.
Transport experts tell me they believe Mr Osborne has a genuine commitment to changing this dismal record, but that the department of transport doesn’t get it.
Whatever the truth, his Northern Powerhouse is being built on faulty foundations.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here