Northern Hub

Over the next five years, the Northern Hub program will provide power grids and new sections of rail starting from Greater Manchester and moving to other areas, with the aim of regulating the circulation of important stations such as Chester, Liverpool, Bradford or Leeds, and thus decreasing congestion in Man­chester Piccadilly. There will be four fast trains per hour traveling from Liverpool to Manchester and the number of run­ning Pennines trains will increase. It is also expected that travel times between cities will decrease 25%.

Network Rail has highlighted the great benefits of the project for the region. It estimates that, in addition to reduced journey times, economic yields of 4 bil­lion pounds will be gained, and rail ca­pacity will increase up to 700 more trains per day. Manchester Airport Station, the UK’s third largest, will be the first to see the results. With a total of 27 million euros invested in its reform, including the works of rail links, the Project will reach conclu­sion by the end of December 2016, when connected with Bradford and Halifax.

Benefits

Travel times between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool will be able to be reduced about 10 minutes. Also, there will be fast trains every hour between Leeds and Man­chester (as opposed to the four existing) and travel times could be reduced about 10 minutes. There will also be a direct ser­vice from the centre of Manchester to the airport in this city. In addition, travel times will also be reduced to Sheffield East Midlands, Cherter, Bradford, Halifax, Hull, Newscastle and the North East.