Transport secretary says government is ‘massively improving everybody’s rail services’, after cross-party criticism
Promises to upgrade links for the north and Midlands have not been broken by the government in its scaled-back rail plan for the region, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has insisted, in the face of a storm of cross-party criticism from leaders in northern England.
The Integrated Rail Plan, published on Thursday, set out a scaling back of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) project and the axing of the planned east Midlands to Leeds high-speed line, with HS2 trains instead running on existing upgraded routes.
