Plans to improve public transport in city regions outside London with a five-year budget of £15.6 billion are expected to be announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves during a speech in Manchester today.
The schemes are understood to include a long-called for extension of the Metrolink tram network to Stockport and more tram stops in Bury, Oldham and central Manchester, using funding worth £2.5 billion.
West Yorkshire gets £2.1 billion to start work on a new tram system connecting Leeds and Bradford, there is £1.6 billion for Merseyside to improve airport links, £1.5 billion for South Yorkshire to renew the existing tram network around Sheffield, £1.8 billion for the North East to extend the Tyne & Metro to Sunderland via Washington, £1 billion for Tees Valley to pay for platform extensions at Middlesborough and other upgrades, £2.4 billion for the West Midlands for another tramway extension, £2 billion for the East Midlands to improve links between Nottingham and Derby, and £800 million for the West of England Combined Authority, which covers Bristol and surrounding areas, to provide more frequent trains for a new estate on the site of the former Filton airfield in South Gloucestershire and also to lay the foundations for a new mass transit scheme, which could involve trams.
The expected announcement will have come a week before the government’s spending review next week, which decides the budgets for each department.
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