Agenda item

Transpennine Route Upgrade: Ambition for West Yorkshire

Minutes:

The Transport Committee considered a report providing an update on the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) rail project and which:

 

(a)        summarised the emerging findings of work to examine desirable service outcomes;

(b)        set out the types of choice the region was likely to be able to make should TRU proceed as envisaged by Transport for the North (TfN); and

(c)        sought Transport Committee’s approval of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s proposed position on the specification of TRU.

 

Members were provided with a detailed update on progress with the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), a project to renew and upgrade the railway between York/Selby and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield. The Combined Authority and Transport for the North (TfN) had identified and agreed that work should been undertaken to examine desirable service outcomes for West Yorkshire; this piece of work explored the nature of the population and employment patterns on the TRU corridor as it passed through West Yorkshire, travel to work patterns, station catchments and future developments likely to influence travel patterns, along with demand forecasting of potentially successful service patterns.  The findings of that work-stream had resulted in a technical note being produced (the Ambition document) which was appended to the submitted report.  The technical note had been shared in draft form with TfN and the Department for Transport (DfT) and had been used to inform discussion at the TfN Partnership Board attended by Cllr Judith Blake on the 13 September.  TfN’s position would be communicated to the Department for Transport with a view to influencing the decision of the Secretary of State in terms of what, if any, variant of TRU should be taken forward.  A decision was expected in January/February 2019.

 

Members discussed the technical note in detail and provided the following comments:

 

·         that more ambition is needed;

  • there is a need to ensure that the TP upgrade delivers on capacity;
  • the detail around movement of freight was insufficient;
  • rail movement should be incorporated into Local Plans;
  • a map showing significant areas of population would have been helpful;
  • the document should highlight points of growth - students at colleges and Huddersfield University;
  • concerns re Penistone line;
  • impact on the upper Calder Valley, Brighouse, Huddersfield;
  • the electric railway charter will have an impact on the Calder Valley line;
  • concerns that full electrification will cause major disruption;
  • lack of connections to other rail services - no service from Wakefield to Manchester;
  • rail capacity issues (ie Wakefield Westgate to Huddersfield);
  • Bradford/Calderdale/Wakefield missing from list at 1.3, page 29;
  • stakeholders should have been consulted;
  • consideration be given to the merger of Mirfield & Ravensthorpe stations.

 

Cllr McBride spoke about his concerns for the Kirklees district and commented that Kirklees Members had not been consulted during formulation of the technical document and asked that discussions take place as a matter of urgency before the views of the Committee were passed  to TfN.

 

On the issue of freight, Councillor Groves advised members that she had recently met with the Freight Council who had offered to come along and talk to the Transport Committee. Members agreed that this would be helpful and suggested that the Road Haulage Association also be invited to attend a future meeting. 

 

Resolved:

 

(i)         That the update provided on the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade be noted.

 

(ii)        That the Ambition document as set out in Appendix 1 of the report be revisited and brought back to a future meeting.

 

(iii)       That support for the TfN Strategic Development Option be endorsed, subject to verifying that it is capable of supporting the preferred service outcomes and that the Chair of the Transport Committee write to the DfT and TfN setting out this position.

 

(iv)       That discussions be held with Kirklees Council on the content of the technical document in advance of the views of the Committee being communicated to Transport for the North.

 

(v)        That the Freight Council and Road Haulage Association be invited to attend a future meeting of the Committee.

Supporting documents: