A BETRAYAL of Bradford.

That was the resounding feeling today as the Government’s long-awaited Integrated Rail Plan confirmed weeks of rumours and leaks that a new high speed Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) line between Leeds and Manchester, via Bradford, had been scrapped. 

Leaders were braced for bad news and were left furious as the “grand vision” for the city, which would have included a new station, was axed. 

When Keighley MP Robbie Moore aired his anger and told MPs the Bradford district had, in his view, been “completely short-changed”, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Let me just make sure he understands and appreciates the full relevance of today. Twelve-minute journey from Bradford to Leeds, that’s nearly half of the current journey time. Thirty minutes off, at least, off the Bradford to London journey after these upgrades are complete.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Bradford Interchange and toured St James’s Wholesale Market, the Council’s proposed site for a Northern Powerhouse Rail station. 

Speaking to reporters at Bradford Interchange, he said: “The Government has betrayed Bradford and it has betrayed the north of England because they made two very important promises that HS2 would be built all the way, including up to Leeds, they’ve ripped that up, and they also promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, a new line going from Manchester to Leeds, they’ve ripped that up as well.

“This was the first big test of levelling up and they’ve failed badly. Frankly, if you can’t level up Bradford, then you’re not serious about levelling up at all.”

He said a station in Bradford would have been “very, very significant” and added: “I know there was a lot of hope and expectation because people were relying on the Prime Minister to keep his word and he hasn’t.”

Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said she was “deeply disappointed” in the Government’s decision and said it was a “real betrayal of Bradford, Yorkshire and the north of England”.

She added: “I think it’s a wrong-headed decision and I think they need to change their mind. I will not accept no for an answer and I will push to make sure we get maximum we can for Bradford.

"If they don’t invest in Bradford, then what does that say about the future of this country as a whole?It’s not just Bradford here, there’s other towns and cities around the country, looking to see if ‘levelling up’ really means something. If it doesn’t, then that’s a very different vision for this country which I don’t like.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said the Prime Minister had reneged on his commitment to a new line between Leeds and Manchester and at face value the plan is “nothing particularly new”.

She said while electrification between Bradford and Leeds, which could see journey times cut to 12 minutes, subject to a business case, will make a difference, it is not the “grand vision” that was hoped for.

“Everything we get we have to fight for in Bradford, nothing comes easy, so I’m not going to take their first answer, I’ll go back for another and another because we need the maximum level of investment in this city,” she told the Telegraph & Argus.

“We deserve it, Bradford has lots to offer, a big young workforce and therefore we are are ripe for investment.”

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin added: “There was obviously the rumours and the briefings, I did think that Boris Johnson would pull a rabbit out of the hat, because he was saying in Parliament ‘just wait, just wait, it’s going to be fantastic’ and actually it’s really disappointing.”

She said a station at the market site was an “amazing opportunity” and added: “Obviously we’re not going to give up, obviously I’ll work with Susan as the Mayor of West Yorkshire to deliver for Bradford, but we need Government to be with us on this journey.”

The report said of the market site: “A through station at or close to St James’s Market, now put forward as Bradford Council’s preferred location, would create journey time savings and facilitate wider regeneration, but would be further from the city centre than the current integrated bus-rail interchange, would be severed from the centre by a six-lane highway, and would be poorly connected to other local rail services, including those running to other parts of the Bradford metropolitan area, such as Shipley, Keighley and Ilkley.”

Mayor Brabin said: “It’s really, really frustrating that this great project that has been developed, that we were being told time and again by the Prime Minister, by the Chancellor, that NPR was going to happen. We thought the biggest fight was about getting Bradford on the line, now we realise there’s not even a new line.”

The Government’s rail plan says new lines from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford would have made “Manchester-Leeds journeys only four minutes faster than the option we have chosen, and cost an extra £18 billion.”

Matt Edwards, a Green Party councillor in Bradford, said that thinking shows the Government has “completely missed the point” and added: “You wouldn’t think Bradford was the seventh biggest city in the country by looking at this announcement.”

Bradford district MPs from across party lines also hit out. Bradford East MP Imran Hussain said: “There are simply no publishable words that can describe my anger towards their Northern Powerhouse betrayal” and said the “consolation prize” of a mass transit system from Leeds was not consolation but a “deliberate two-fingers to Bradford”. 

Bradford South MP Judith Cummins said it was “broken promises personified”.
“Not putting Bradford on a high-speed through line is misjudgement and missed opportunity on a massive scale,” she said. 

Naz Shah, Bradford West MP, said it was “half baked” while Shipley MP Philip Davies said it was a “massively missed opportunity”. However, he had no qualms over the scrapping of the eastern leg of HS2.

Mr Davies said the focus of Council leaders on the high-speed project had led to the downscaling of NPR.

Keighley MP Robbie Moore said he was “bitterly disappointed” and added: “Economic prosperity relies on good transport links, and today the Bradford district has been completely short- changed.”

Meanwhile, the Conservative Group on Bradford Council, said there are many “positives to be taken”. 

Group leader Councillor Rebecca Poulsen said: “I’m not going to put a spin on it, I concede that we are disappointed at the cancellation of the Eastern leg of HS2, it would have been helpful for the district. It is obviously far from ideal that Bradford will not get a Northern Powerhouse Railway Station and be connected directly to that network.

“However, the vast majority of journeys made by local residents are regular, short commutes within the region, for work and shopping/leisure purposes. The longer journeys that would have benefited from HS2 are comparably small in number.

"Improvements to journey times, such as Bradford to Leeds in 12 minutes will benefit thousands of local people in their daily lives, many of them literally once or twice per day, such as those going to work and shorter journey times to any neighbouring town or city will increase the appeal of inward investment in jobs in the area more appealing to companies who do not currently operate here.”

She added that the negatives appear to be “outweighed by the many positives”.