Rail links 'would create £10bn'

The report calls for better links with and between Northern cities

Creating better and faster rail links between cities in the north of England and London could benefit the UK economy by more than £10bn, a report has said.

The report for Development agency group The Northern Way said it also wanted to see new fast cross-Pennine services, connecting all northern England cities.

The benefits would be £3.5bn for the North, £3.5bn for Greater London and £3bn for the rest of the UK, it said.

Reduced travel times and better access for businesses would generate funds.

The Northern Way includes three Northern Regional Development Agencies.

They are Yorkshire Forward, One NorthEast and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

A trans-Pennine link would create a new economic geography for the north of England and the country as a whole Professor David Begg

Professor David Begg, chairman of The Northern Way's transport compact said: "These wider economic benefits come about through reducing travel times in city-to-city and business-to-business access.

"They appear not to have been taken into account in the [government's] rail White Paper and are additional to those previously calculated for high-speed rail."

The Northern Way wants to see:

An eastern high-speed rail line running from London via the east of England and East Midlands to Yorkshire, the North East and on to Scotland

A western line from London to the North West with connections to Heathrow and the West Midlands

A trans-Pennine link

Professor Begg said: "There are very worthwhile benefits for the North East and Yorkshire from a high-speed line on the east side of the country and for the North West from a high-speed line on the west side."

'Significant value'

He added: "But, a trans-Pennine link adds more than 40% to the wider economic benefits that we have identified for the North.

"A trans-Pennine link would create a new economic geography for the north of England and the country as a whole."

Tom Riordan, chief executive of Yorkshire Forward, said: "It is roughly the same distance from one end of the [Underground] Central Line in London to the other as it is between Leeds and Manchester city centres.

"This proposal for a 'Northern Crossrail' connecting all of the north's cities as well as faster links to London would not only add significant value to the north's economy but could change the perception of investors, businesses and graduates about the North's potential as a career and investment destination."