BILLIONS of pounds that would have been spent on the northern leg of HS2 will be used to reopen a disused North East railway line and dual the A1 in Northumberland, Rishi Sunak has promised.

The Prime Minister confirmed on Wednesday (October 4) that the Birmingham to Manchester section of the high-speed rail line will be scrapped – and pledged instead to divert £36bn into hundreds of other transport projects in the North and Midlands.

Among the North East projects included in Mr Sunak’s promised ‘Network North’ are the restoration of the Leamside railway line and the latest Government pledge to dual the section of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham.

However, Labour warned that the chances of Mr Sunak’s promises actually being delivered were “slim”, while the Lib Dems branded the announcements “typical Tory hot air”.

The A1 project has been the subject of decades of campaigning, yet work has never begun despite former chancellor George Osborne having given it the go-ahead back in 2014.

MPs, council leaders, and transport officials in the region have also been pushing for years for the Leamside Line to be restored – something which could allow an extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro to Washington.

The region will also receive a £1.8bn share of new transport funding under, with another £1bn going to the Tees Valley, as the Government hailed a “revolution in the country’s transport infrastructure”.

After the PM’s party conference speech in Manchester, the Government released a list of the pledges to the North East including:

  • Funding to dual the section of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham;
  • £460 million for smaller road schemes, including the Blyth Relief Road;
  • Reopening the Leamside Line, which runs between Pelaw in Gateshead and Tursdale in County Durham, and building a new railway station at Ferryhill; 
  • Funding for contactless or smartcard travel ticketing;
  • £1.8 bn for the North East from the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement 2 and HS2 funding.

Mr Sunak said in his keynote address that the costs of the HS2 project had “more than doubled” and that “the facts have changed”.

He added: “I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country.

“This means £36 billion of investment in the projects that will make a real difference across our nation.”

Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson said he was “absolutely delighted” by the announcements, calling the long-awaited A1 dualling and the Blyth Relief Road “incredibly important”.

But Kim McGuinness, Labour’s candidate for North East mayor, warned that “after 13 years of broken Tory promises the chances of this latest offer being delivered in full are slim”.

She added: “We need better connections between the North East, Yorkshire and the North West, we need the Leamside Line in Durham reopening, we need buses brought back into public control, we need Metro investment for expansion and upgrading and we finally need the A1 fully dualled.

“The Government has been told the Metro system needs more than £500m to upgrade its signalling system before the system starts to fail completely in 2030. That’s non-negotiable, it needs urgent sign-off from Government.

“But after this latest Tory transport axe, people across the North East will be asking themselves, can we trust this Government to deliver on any of its transport promises? They have promised investment again and again, and not delivered. No one wants to be the last fool to trust Rishi Sunak.” 

Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Thom Campion said that Mr Sunak was the fifth occupant of 10 Downing Street in succession to commit to A1 upgrades “but there’s nothing different about this reheated attempt to hoodwink residents”.

He added: “Today’s announcement is typical Tory hot air. Residents across the North East know they can’t trust this government to make good on their promises and deliver for what our region actually needs.”

Cllr Martin Gannon, chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee and leader of Gateshead Council, said: “I am hugely disappointed that the northern leg of HS2 has been scrapped. This is further disappointment for the North following the cancellation of the Eastern leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail, which was so vital for East-West connections and included the reopening of the Leamside Line. We stand united with the city regions of the North and the Midlands in our desire for both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) to be built in full. 

“It is however positive that the government has recognised some of our local priorities including the long-campaigned for Leamside Line and the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme. Although they in no way compensate for the enormous national economic damage caused by the cancellation of the HS2 and NPR projects, it does appear that some new funding has been allocated to the region as a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement and so we look forward to receiving the details in due course.

“With the constant chopping and changing it is hard not to be sceptical about the government’s long-term commitment to new announcements about infrastructure projects, but I hope that we can salvage a positive outcome for our region.”