Plans to improve rail journey times in the north have been announced. We first heard details back in 2011 that around £300 million will be spent on the electrification of the Transpennine route, with work due to take place in the Selby area in the next 3 to 4 years. The station and Bawtry Road bridge will need major work doing to it to allow for the extra height needed for electrification. As part of the national High Speed 2 project, an extension (High Speed 3) will join the big cities across the M62 corridor. Estimates have suggested a running speed of 140 miles per hour will reduce timings on current journeys to 30 minutes. Chancellor George Osborne, launched the news soon after the proposed £43billion High Speed 2 rail link from London to the north, and suggested that even more cash is spent on new rail links between cities such as Manchester and Leeds. Extending the project from Leeds to Selby Train Station and maybe onto Hull is part of the proposals. With our direct link to London, the Hull to Selby and Selby to the main line at Temple Hirst sections need to be included as well.
The Chancellor has also promised to fix the roads which is a huge investment in itself. The disgraceful state of the bypass has been discussed already, and we await resurfacing plans in early 2015. The governments idea is to create one large 'global northern city' to recreate the various sections of our capital city, London. The proposed link from Manchester to Leeds would be based on the existing rail route, but speeded up with new tunnels and infrastructure.
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