The government’s new ‘Network North’ plan that will replace the Manchester leg of HS2 includes a number of dubious pledges that have raised the eyebrows of a few people on social media.
Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the second leg of the high-speed rail project has provoked fury from senior Tories and business leaders, as well as members of the opposition.
The prime minister argues that “the facts have changed” and the cost of the high-speed rail scheme had “more than doubled”, saying that money would be better spent elsewhere.
But analysis of the Network North plan suggests that cash might not be getting directed to the places that need it most.
The GOV.UK website says the government will improve connectivity in all six Northern city areas, inlcuding: “the extension of the Manchester Metrolink to Heywood, Bolton, Wigan and Manchester Airport and bus rapid transit corridors in Manchester.”
Yet the Metrolink line to the Airport opened in 2014, nine years ago.
Elsewhere, point 73 notes that they will fix potholes… in the South!
“We will spend an additional £2.8 billion resurfacing roads in East, South East and South West England, ending the scourge of potholes in our towns and cities”. it reads.
And most astonishingly of all, the front page of the policy paper doesn’t even place Manchester in the right place!
It’s not like they’ve just had their party conference there or anything.
Related: HS2 replacement plan will lead to a ‘decade of rail replacement buses’