Major rail upgrade in the North could be hit by more delays after £190m is 'wasted'

Plans to upgrade the 76-mile line, which runs between York and Manchester, were first announced in 2011 and the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed £1bn has been spent so far on the project, which aims to increase capacity, improve reliability and improve journey times, but almost £200m has been wasted.

The Department for Transport promised £5.4bn for the project, when it published the Integrated Rail Plan in November, but its latest projection stated between £9bn and £11.5bn will be required and the work will completed between 2036 and 2041.

It comes after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the budget has been increased because the project has “totally changed”, not because costs have overrun.

In a new report, the NAO said the Department for Transport has “taken too long to decide how to upgrade the route”, “repeatedly altered” the plans, since work began in 2015, and not settled on options for electrification, digital signalling and track and station improvements.

Network Rail, which is working on the line, has spent £190m on work that is “no longer needed” as a result of these changes, the NAO added, but the Government has now developed a clear plan for the work.

The watchdog said that while the project has been delayed, passengers have endured long-running problems with poor reliability and overcrowding on a route which is already at “full capacity”.

More than 135m passengers used the line before the pandemic and just 38 per cent of trains ran on time in 2019.

The NAO has also warned that if Network Rail cannot address labour shortages and reach agreements with operators, to gain access to the line for construction, it “could lead to substantial delays in programme delivery and increased costs”.

Concerns have also been raised about rising costs, due to inflation, and it is not yet clear how much will be needed to buy new trains which can run on the upgraded line.

It added: “The Department and Network Rail have not yet agreed how and if they are able to manage additional inflationary pressures within existing budgets.”

Mr Shapps announced earlier this week the line will be fully electrified, digital signalling equipment will be installed along the route and the number of tracks will be doubled to four between Huddersfield and Westtown in Dewsbury.

“It's an entirely different project. The previous version didn't electrify the whole of the route,” he said.

“The previous version didn't do digital signalling or build the new lines. So this is really the full fat project that's going to mean you can travel from Manchester to Leeds in 33 minutes.”

He added: “It will take 10 to 15 years to deliver the entire line, but that's probably a decade faster than it would have been to deliver the alternative, which would have been trying to blast brand new tunnels through the Pennines.”

The Transport Minister also said almost £960m will be spent on the next phase of the Transpennine Route Upgrade.

The investment will be used to electrify the line between Stalybridge and Manchester, to reduce journey times for freight and passenger services.

Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “It took 10 years for TPRU to gain traction and money was wasted along the way, but the programme is finally moving forward.

"The Department for Transport appears to have put things on a firmer footing, but the path is littered with cautionary tales of transport projects that later went off the rails. At such an early stage, there are still a great many hurdles to overcome.

"There are still worrying question marks over how the benefits of the upgrades will actually be achieved. Benefit to public must be at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

“The people in the North of England deserve a transport system that meets their needs.”

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “This scathing report reveals the Conservatives’ calamitous mishandling of this vital line has wasted hundreds of millions of pounds, and is set to be at least a decade late.

“A lost decade of broken Tory promises has led to chronic delays and overcrowding on this critical route, holding the Northern economy back.”