Lib Dem Peer keeps up pressure on rail electrification
‘I’LL KEEP ASKING UNTIL I GET AN ANSWER’: Lord McCobb
By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor
Lord Dave McCobb, Hull’s Liberal Democrat Peer, has accused the Government of dodging its promise to electrify the city’s railway.
He has vowed to put the questions he says it refused to answer straight back to Ministers.
In his first act in the House of Lords last month, Lord McCobb asked the Government what it was doing to honour its September 2024 commitment to bring Hull into Northern Powerhouse Rail. That commitment, written into the Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, included electrifying and improving the line between Hull, Leeds and Sheffield.
The peer said Rail Minister Lord Hendy’s reply did not once mention electrifying the line, and that it instead it:
Pointed to new battery-electric trains, which will run on Hull’s existing, unelectrified track.
Said that improving the link to Sheffield would “still be considered … in future years”.
Gave no date, no journey times and no funding for anything Hull was promised.
As Parliament returns this week, Lord McCobb has tabled three further questions demanding the Government:
Says whether it believes battery trains meet its written promise to electrify the line, and if not, when that promise will be kept.
Set out what faster journeys Hull passengers will actually get, and when.
Put a date on “future years” for the Hull to Sheffield link, and say whether it will look seriously at private investment to electrify Hull’s lines.
Lord McCobb said: “The Government put its name to a promise to electrify the line between Hull, Leeds and Sheffield. It’s there in black and white. Now we’re told about battery trains running on the same old track, and that the Hull to Sheffield run will be thought about at some point in the future. That’s not what Hull was promised.
“It is currently faster to get from London to Paris than from Hull to Liverpool. Hull and East Yorkshire have been left behind and held back for so many years, and this promise has been made, remade and broken for more than a decade.
“The Conservatives turned electrification down. Labour signed up to it and then walked away. We now have a Prime Minister who built his reputation championing the North. He can put it right.
“If Ministers won’t answer the question, I’ll keep asking it. People in Hull and East Yorkshire have been sidelined by successive governments for far too long, and it’s time we took a proper stand."
Councillor Mike Ross, Lid Dem leader of Hull City Council, added: “We got this commitment in writing because it matters so much to Hull’s future. The Government hasn’t kept its side of the deal so far, and a vague answer in Parliament doesn’t change that.”
Last month, the Department for Transport announced £1bn of investment in a new fleet of 29 battery-electric TransPennine Express trains.
The trains will operate services between key destinations across the North, including Manchester Piccadilly and Hull.
The battery-electric Adessia Stream trains, the first of their kind on a UK main line route, will provide emission-free travel on non-electrified sections of the railway. They are due to be built from 2028 and enter service in winter 2034.