Headlines: Metro Mayor says Government rail plans for North are “scraps off the table”
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Liverpool's Metro Mayor has responded to the Government’s announcement of an Integrated Rail Plan to change the rail network in the North and Midlands.
The Government set out its scaled-back plans for rail investment on Thursday. The Prime Minister maintained it would treble capacity between Manchester and Liverpool. However, Liverpool’s Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said the North was being offered "scraps off the table".
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Hide AdIn a statement, he said: "The Integrated Rail Plan was a once in a generation opportunity to revolutionise our country's rail network.
“Properly delivered, it had the potential to be as transformative for rail travel as Stephenson's Rocket. Instead, they have proposed a service that could have been promoted by Gladstone in the Victorian era.
"What we have seen is a government pretending to deliver that transformation but doing it on the cheap. Communities across the North have been held back for decades, forced to accept sticking plaster solutions and grossly underfunded by Government. "
"It's not too late to fix this. My door is open if the Government are serious about levelling up the North and want to engage with us."
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