18 November 2021
RMT Press Office:
Government’s Integrated Rail Plan confirms the ‘great Northern rail betrayal’.
RAIL UNION RMT today described the Government’s long-delayed ‘Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands’ as a “historic betrayal of the people of the North”. The 162-page document confirms that the Eastern leg of the HS2 Project will be scrapped entirely and that Northern Powerhouse Rail will be all but cancelled.
Commenting on the publication of the plan RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said:
“This Government today confirmed what is a historic betrayal of the people of the North.
“This plan will lead to a dramatic reduction in rail capacity that the HS2 Eastern leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail would have delivered, capacity that would have gone a long way to deliver the UK’s climate change commitments and hundreds of thousands of jobs on our railways and across the supply chain.
“The Government is trying to dress this up as a historic announcement, but no amount of Government spin can disguise that this is a shocking kick in the teeth for the North of England. For the Government to also wait until the vital COP26 climate talks have ended before publishing these U-Turns proves that these plans will not nearly go far enough to reduce CO2 emissions from transport.
“This plan sums up this Government’s approach to our railways: Tory austerity, cutbacks and a complete lack of ambition”
Notes to editors
1. The integrated rail plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1034360/integrated-rail-plan-for-the-north-and-midlands.pdf
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