Today the Prime Minister made announcements in his speech at the Conservative Party Conference about cancelling stages of HS2 and creating a new Network North. Network North is a range of major investments in improving transport in the north of England. The Prime Minister said "The facts have changed and the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction".
The North and Midlands are being held back because they don’t have the high-quality transport systems they need and in the Government’s own document released today the case for better transport form Blyth is made – “In the North East during the morning rush hour, it takes over an hour to get from Blyth into Newcastle city centre by bus. To commute to the Team Valley industrial estate to the south of Gateshead, one of the largest industrial estates in Europe with 700 businesses and 25,000 jobs, the journey by bus would take an hour and a half, despite only being 20 miles away.”
The Prime Minister announced £460 million to guarantee the delivery of 21 road schemes and the launch of a £1 billion roads fund in the North to fund new schemes such as the Blyth Relief Road. This will be a new east to west relief road to relieve capacity constraints on the A193 to the north of Blyth and the A1061 to the south.
Ian Levy, MP for Blyth Valley, commented “I welcome the Prime Minister's announcements today about Network North and the cancelling of stages of HS2. I applaud the Prime Minister’s courage to make this decision – the facts have changed and so the decision must change. I have been making the case for the Blyth Relief Road for some time now and I’m really delighted that the Prime Minister has included it in his speech. These major investments in transport in the North will make lives better for so many more people than HS2 could ever have done. The Government are delivering for both private and public transport users with major investments in roads, passenger rail services and buses. We must not forget that all of this comes on the back of the major investment in the Northumberland Line which is being built now and will connect South East Northumberland to Tyneside next year”.
Also announced was a significant start to dualling of the A1 in Northumberland with the long-awaited upgrade to the coastal route between Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh, reducing congestion for the communities of Ashington, Felton, Alnwick and Amble.
Other measures include an additional £100 million between the North and Midlands to support the development and rollout of London-style contactless and smart ticketing, supporting seamless travel by enabling contactless or smartcard payment. There will be an additional £3.3 billion to resurface roads in the North and tackle the scourge of potholes for everyday drivers – the North Road Resurfacing Fund. The North East will receive around £1.2bn for local transport from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, plus a further £0.7bn funded from HS2.
The national £2 bus fare was due to expire at the end of October, but it will now be extended until the end of 2024. Buses are the most used and loved form of public transport and this will keep the costs down for families.
