A newly-proposed railway line linking Manchester and Liverpool could cut the commute time between the two cities to just 20 minutes, local leaders have said.
Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region respectively, said the railway could provide a £90bn economic boost to the north-west by 2040.
The new railway, which could begin construction in the early 2030s, is forecast to support 22,000 jobs while being built.
Both Liverpool and Manchester were originally going to be included in Phase 2 of the HS2 project, but this was cancelled in 2023 by the Conservative government as part of a series of cost-saving measures. That government committed £17bn to the Liverpool-Manchester line following this cancellation, and the project’s inclusion in the High Speed Rail Bill was subsequently confirmed in the 2024 King’s Speech.
Rotheram and Burnham have called on the current government to commit to the project as soon as possible in order to give certainty...