Johnson promises support for cross-Pennine rail link

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has promised that he will revive the ‘HS3’ project to provide a new high speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester.

Speaking in Manchester at the weekend, he said the benefits of such a link would be ‘colossal’, and that it would ‘turbo-charge the economy’.

The Prime Minister had started a review of HS2 before he came to office, and he said the details of the Leeds-Manchester proposals would be published in the autumn following the HS2 review.

Plans for a cross-Pennine high speed rail link were first published by the coalition government in 2014, but the plans were not taken forward.

The DfT said in June that no decision on the northern link had been taken, but estimated its cost as up to £39 billion.

The HS2 budget is still officially £55.7 billion, but it has been reported that the cost could rise by another £30 billion.

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