Written evidence from Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LCR LEP)

Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LCR LEP) is pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the Transport Select Committee's inquiry into Investment in the Railway. The rail network, particularly the freight network, has a key role in enabling economic development in the City Region, as articulated in our Strategic Economic Plan submitted to Government.

LCR LEP supports the Government's commitment to invest in the Northern Hub and to electrify parts of the North's network, making the railway more economical to run, reducing journey times between major conurbations, providing additional capacity and improving rolling stock capacity, all of which will positively impact on business and productivity.

As outlined in the Merseytravel response to the Select Committee the LCR LEP would like to reiterate the following points:

  1. The strategic investment decisions, inherently biased against regional and commuter rail, need to take account of wider economic benefits, not just financial measures.

 

  1. The overwhelming priority for investment in Control Period 6 continues to be the need for further capacity and connectivity improvements, particularly within the context of enhanced accessibility to the proposed HS2 network. These improvements need to cover city region linkages, connections between key regional cities and their smaller satellite cities and towns, and links to smaller communities. The Liverpool City Region is poorly connected by rail to the rest of the country, particularly in comparison with the other Core City areas.

 

  1. In addition, east-west inter-urban connectivity must be improved in parallel with HS2, in order to realize the improvements in agglomeration necessary to drive the North of England's economy as a coherent whole.

 

  1. Further electrification is a necessity; to both reduce the regions' reliance on diesel rolling stock, and also to strengthen the resilience of the network. Concern remains over a lack of commitment to both the Northern Hub and electrification in relation to the rolling stock or the associated operating costs, which may result in the level of service on the North's railway network in 2019 only being similar to current levels.

 

  1. Rolling stock is a key issue for the North of England. A significant net increase in carriages is required to provide acceptable capacity for the December 2018 timetable under baseline forecasts; this is amplified under Rail North's aspirations for enhanced connectivity.

 

  1. LCR LEP supports the opinion that it is the responsibility of Network Rail to ensure that the base network of the Merseyrail network can cope with increased demand on the network. Particularly given the dependence of the local Long Term Rail Strategy on the ability to create additional capacity on the Merseyrail network, and the ability to extend the network beyond its current boundaries to serve new catchments and provide new connections between people and employment, a central pillar of our Local Growth Plan. For these objectives to be achieved the Merseyrail network requires a power upgrade.

 

  1. LCR LEP agrees there is a need for a stronger emphasis on rail freight, though not at the expense of investment in passenger service developments. Rail freight plays an important role in supporting the Liverpool City Region economy; the Liverpool City Region Strategic Economic Plan recognizes the freight industry as a key growth area for the City Region. The Freight and Logistics Hub is a programme of projects which builds on the £340m private sector investment in Liverpool2 and £600m Mersey Gateway project, both of which are critical elements of the City Region long-term SUPERPORT project.

 

  1. Nationally despite HS2 investment, there is still a requirement for significant investment in capacity improvement schemes to cater for the growth in demand across passenger and freight traffic. Freight also requires capability interventions to be effective. In addition there is an urgent need to understand the impact of HS2 on classic rail capacity in the Liverpool City Region. City Region partners are very supportive of HS2 but want to ensure that it does not risk prejudicing the City Region's aspirations to improve its rail connectivity to other parts of the UK outside of the South East, and also freight capacity from growing freight assets, as well as limiting capacity for underlying growth in passenger and freight traffic generally.

 

  1. Rail investment from a freight perspective needs to include a focus on the strategic rail corridors to and from the Channel Tunnel and major ports, including those in the North and West. Major non-port distribution hubs, such as 3MG, also need to factor in to these strategic rail corridors. Investment in west-east rail corridors as well as north-south corridors is vital as Northern Ports grow alongside South Coast ports.

 

  1. Liverpool City Region partners strongly believe the recent robust economic performance recorded by the City Region can be further enhanced through proposals in our Strategic Economic Plan, the points raised in this letter regarding Investment in the Railway are crucial to the successful delivery of those proposals.

 

Yours sincerely,

Robert Hough

Chair

Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership

June 2014