Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR)
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is the government's plan to provide more reliable and more frequent services between key economic centres in the North of England. NPR forms the transport backbone of the Northern Growth Strategy and will deliver a "turn-up-and-go" railway linking Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford, Sheffield and York, with regular onward services to Newcastle, Hull and Chester for North Wales connections.
NPR will be delivered in three phases:
- early upgrades and electrification east of the Pennines (Leeds–Bradford, Sheffield-Leeds, Leeds–York);
- a new Liverpool–Manchester route via new stations at Warrington Bank Quay (Low Level) and Manchester Airport; and
- further cross-Pennine enhancements beyond the Transpennine Route Upgrade, including Manchester-Leeds, Manchester-Bradford and Manchester-Sheffield.
The High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill
The government is taking forward the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill to obtain the necessary powers to deliver the Northern Powerhouse Rail route into Manchester via Manchester Airport. This is part of the second phase of NPR.
The Bill has been adapted to deliver only the section from the Parish of Millington and Rostherne to Manchester Piccadilly, via a new station at Manchester Airport.
You can find out more about hybrid bills and their parliamentary process here.
Additional Provisions
It's common for changes to be made to the proposals in a hybrid bill because of design refinements and as discussions with landowners, occupiers and other parties take place.
These changes are presented in a set of documents called 'Additional Provisions', or APs, which detail each amendment. APs are accompanied by an Environmental Statement (ES) that reports the significant environmental effects of the amendments in the relevant areas.
The first AP (AP1) was deposited in Parliament on 6 July 2022. The Supplementary Environmental Statement 1 (SES1) was published alongside AP1.
AP2 was deposited in Parliament on 3 July 2023 alongside its Environmental Statements – the AP2 ES and the SES2.
To make the changes to deliver only the Northern Powerhouse Rail section in the Bill, a further Supplementary Environmental Assessment will take place to assess the expected effects of the Bill adaptation. A further Additional Provision may also be required. Those documents will be published on this website when they are available.
Information Papers
You can view a series of Information Papers here that have been produced to explain the commitments made in the Bill and the Environmental Minimum Requirements (EMRs) and how they will be applied to the design and construction of the Proposed Scheme. The EMRs are published here. They also provide information about the Proposed Scheme itself, the powers contained in the Bill and how particular decisions about the Proposed Scheme have been reached.
Future connections
The government has confirmed its intention to ultimately complete a new line between Birmingham and Manchester. This is not included in this Bill and this would be progressed following the delivery of the three stages of NPR. The government will carry out assessments on the best way of taking this forward.