‘Spectre of HS2’ hangs over Burnham-backed Northern Powerhouse Rail, MPs warn

An ambitious northern England rail scheme backed by possible future prime minister Andy Burnham has suffered a blow after an influential group of MPs issued a damning report over the “clear risk” of the project, claiming lessons had not been learned from the HS2 fiasco.

The Northern Powerhouse Rail aims to bring railway services up to the standards of the south of the country with improved connections across northern regions, between Liverpool and Hull.

In January, the government announced its backing of the scheme with the first phase to improve connections between Sheffield, Leeds and York, to be followed by a new railway route between Liverpool and Manchester via Manchester Airport.

The scheme, coming with an initial £45bn funding cap, has been welcomed by the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who said the project would act as a “catalyst for major growth in our city region and beyond”.

However, not long before Mr Burnham’s expected appointment as replacement to Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, a critical report has been issued on the viability of the project by the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The MPs said they were not confident the Department for Transport had “learned all the lessons from past failures” and noted that NPR “remains at an early stage despite more than 12 years of planning”.

They also compared the scheme’s development to the “lack of robust governance” in the early stages of HS2, and expressed fears it could face similar cost pressures with doubts it would be able to avoid “expensive measures” such as “HS2’s costly bat tunnel”.

HS2 Ltd’s £100m spend on a bat protection tunnel in Buckinghamshire to mitigate the environmental impacts was seen by many as a measure of the cost-effectiveness of the downgraded high-speed railway scheme, which could cost more than £100bn to build and will run trains slower than first planned.

Labour MP Clive Betts, deputy chairman of the PAC, said: “The government’s growth strategy earlier this year signalled that there is still an appetite to finally deliver the transport infrastructure the North so badly needs.

“But the spectre of HS2 hangs over Northern Powerhouse Rail.

“Our committee has heard troubling echoes of the same mistakes in loose governance that HS2 made early on, and so much of the project remains almost impressionistic, 12 years on.”

He added that a decision to use representatives from HS2 to develop NPR “does not fill us with confidence” as the former “has been a casebook example of how not to run a major project”.

On the £45bn funding cap for the overall project, which could later be topped up by local contributions, the PAC report said there was a “clear risk” the DfT could deliver the full programme and benefits within the budget.

A DfT spokesperson said: “NPR will not repeat the mistakes of HS2 which is why we accepted all the recommendations of the James Stewart Review and are taking a disciplined, phased approach, completing detailed technical work with all stakeholders before fixing precise choices for major infrastructure.

“Since announcing NPR in January, we have worked closely with Mayors to take the project forward.

“New joint partnership forums are already overseeing the next stage of development and Network Rail has begun developing engineering designs.”