Supernorth aug15 v3

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The ‘yes’ minister

Opening his door to Enterprise Zones

Focus on

Northern infrastructure and regeneration In association with

Good point: Powerhouse minister James Wharton and Wirral Metropolitan College principal Sue Higginson

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Update

Forum: on urban renewal

Powering ahead

Let’s hear it for a revitalised North, urge top players

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n this issue of Super North we tackle headon some of the concerns being raised about the Northern powerhouse by its critics. The “pause” in electrification across the Pennines made headlines and was duly seized on by sceptics as a nail in the coffin of devolution to the North. Well, the people in the know have told Super North that this is not a derailment of the Northern powerhouse but really is a pause (see pages 6-7).

After all, electrification of railways in the North was planned well in advance of George Osborne coining the Northern powerhouse phrase. Since then, of course, we have seen the arrival of Transport for the North and the increased need for a pan-Northern approach which the original plan did not totally address.

Then there is the question of whether there has been too much focus on core cities at the expense of the rest of the North. James Wharton, minister for the Northern powerhouse, has laid that to rest – see page 4. His door is open to everyone who wishes to make a case.

We also look at the issue of regeneration through the focal point of the Anfield Project, which is converting a downbeat area where people desperately wanted to leave into an upbeat one where they actually want to live. See the Super North Forum on pages 2-3 and the Your Housing Group piece on page 5.

All in all, then, an upbeat edition in terms of the infrastructure and regeneration needed to make the Northern powerhouse a reality.

Inside

‘It’s for the whole of the North’ Minister on powerhouse deal Page 4 The regeneration of Anfield Housing group’s vital strategy Page 5 Still on fast track to tomorrow Despite electrification ‘pause’ Pages 6-7 If you want to know more about Super North, freephone 0800 027 0403 or contact animmo@supernorth.co.uk @thesupernorth

By a bandstand trumpeting regeneration, their tune is an optimistic but realistic one, says Mike Cowley

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he Isla Gladstone Conservatory was once a symbol of the Victorian age of enlightenment, when it took pride of place in Stanley Park in North Liverpool and offered an oasis of fresh air for the then-prosperous inner city populace.

That was in 1870, however, when the North of England had been riding the boom of the Industrial Revolution. Like the city in which it was built, the conservatory then fell on hard times. Once on the edge of countryside, the area was eventually swallowed by the city – and as Liverpool’s fortunes began to decline, so too did those of the Isla Gladstone Conservatory and of Stanley Park itself.

The fate of the conservatory was to be reduced to a pile of rusty iron and broken glass, choked by weeds and hidden behind anti-vandal hoardings – and the surrounding area, both the park and Anfield generally, did not fare much better.

Today, painstakingly, the conservatory has been returned to its former glory and is now a leading conference and dining venue at the heart of the similarly restored Stanley Park. As the brochure puts it: “Converted with much care, the Victorian conservatory is set amidst picture-perfect rose gardens and lakes, surrounded by historic stone pavilions and adjacent to a fairytale bandstand.”

The transformation is a key component of the dynamic urban regeneration of Liverpool in general and Anfield in particular.

The city is making a statement that its regeneration should not be confined to the glittering and now well-established waterfront.

So what more fitting a venue for the Super North Forum on infrastructure and regeneration in the North than the Isla Gladstone Conservatory? Also fitting was it being a Forum that attracted a crosssection of key players from bodies which share the common cause of ensuring that the entire North of England lives up to its billing as the Northern powerhouse.

And what better place to discuss the need for a pan-Northern approach to infrastructure and regeneration, rather than favouring the piecemeal method which focuses in the main on where tourists go or businessmen visit?

Professor Parkinson: ‘Real opportunity’ Chaired by Alasdair Nimmo of Super North, it fell to Professor Michael Parkinson, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Liverpool – who was awarded a CBE for services to urban regeneration – to set not only the scene but also establish the theme that ran through the event.

As expected from the leading international academic, Professor Parkinson did not pull any punches, arguing that urban regeneration “should not just be about poor places and poor people”.

He went on: “When you think about regeneration, you always face questions.

Are we trying to fix places or people? Is it about economic opportunity or about social challenges? We need to be clear about what we are trying to do. That said, we need to be optimistic about the current opportunity, not just in the City Region but in the North. We need to learn from Europe. The UK has three cities in the top 40 in Europe; Germany has eight.

“What next for Government? They’ve got to take the North seriously, they’ve got to build the means to the end. Technically, we are a dog’s dinner in terms of Government and managing economies. We need to decentralise.

“What next for the North? I’d say this is a real opportunity. We all need to seize all the opportunities – as Manchester has done – in terms of the Northern powerhouse.”

Taking up the issue of where the focus of regeneration needed to be, Simon Bedford of Deloitte said that the twin factors of productivity and retaining talent in the

North should not be overlooked. “Productivity is a relatively new word in the context of regeneration,” he said, “and it’s one we should focus on harder. In the UK, we are a long way behind.

“I think we need to focus on that part and on the talent in the North. When I talk to people around here, a lot of them still speak about working in London. We need to think harder about retaining and attracting into our city, becoming more economically successful – and from that we will get the real benefits from urban regeneration.”

Tim Johnston of AMION Consulting also had a view on this. “You retain talented people by doing interesting and important things,” he said. “Therefore, we need to work on key strategic assets – our universities, what’s going on with graphene in Manchester, in Liverpool with material science and with big data. The key is to build in an inclusive way so we pick up new people, not just new scientists.”

Alasdair Nimmo then switched the discussion to how areas of deprivation should

All ears: A section of the audience be addressed, a subject close to the heart of Brian Cronin of Your Housing Group, which has been leading the regeneration project in Anfield (see page 5).

“This is the third time that Anfield has been regenerated,” Mr Cronin said. “Why did the first two fail? Because we never actually addressed the real problem of why people didn’t want to live in the area, which wasn’t because the housing was substandard.

Most people can go to London and live in substandard housing being sold for probably a million pounds, because geographically it is being sold so close to economic activity.

“The real issue in Anfield was economic activity and the narrative about living in Anfield. For us to retain assets, we need to create narratives about why you should live and work here that people aspire to. People should not move away, but move here.”

Mr Cronin continued: “What would be the things that make people want to come here, and make industry come here? What

Super North is an independent supplement distributed in The Times. It is produced by Super North publications, who can accept no legal liability for any errors. The content has been obtained from sources that the publisher believes to be correct.

Editor: Frank Simpson

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we need to do is to actually work on a more strategic level across the region, creating the basis of economic growth.

“The first thing you need before investment is faith, and that is generated through the narrative. We’ve had a negative narrative for a long time – there have been reasons why you would not want to come here, but now the reasons why you would want to come here are starting to grow and we need to expand and broadcast them.”

This was the cue for Mark Kitts of Liverpool City Council to enter the debate. “I think what has been said about the Government letting us have a go has reaped real benefits,” he said. “We put together a strategy with Your Housing Group, Liverpool and Everton [football clubs] to regenerate.

We knew it would be a slow journey but we stipulated priorities, so a great example is the Anfield Project “It wasn’t all about getting money to help you do it – we did it more commercially and worked with the private sector, persuading them you could do business and prosper in Liverpool. When we started to do that, we reaped rewards.

“The administration changed, we got a lot of money from Government, Liverpool FC’s ownership changed, and we all got together because we knew we could make a big difference. We invested but also worked with the communities and two years later here we are mid-project. That, for Liverpool, is fantastic.”

Mr Cronin then added some more thoughts. “People invested in it [Anfield] and we moved in incremental steps,” he said, “and five years later we’re nearly there.

It shows we can work regionally, without always looking south.”

The backstory in terms of infrastructure and regeneration in the North is what is happening in terms of transport in general but more specifically rail (see pages 6-7).

“Transport is a big part of this issue,” said Mr Nimmo from the chair. “It is not just about how much the money central Government is investing, it is about how smartly that money is being invested.”

It was left to Chris Nutton of First TransPennine Express to explain the importance of transport to ensure the mobility of the workforce in accessing jobs across the region. “Changing the economic geography

The Forum panel From left

Cllr David Green, leader, City of Bradford Council.

Philip Rooney, partner, DLA Piper – based in Liverpool with 30 years of experience in real estate law.

Chris Nutton, programme director, First TransPennine Express.

Simon Bedford, partner, Deloitte Real Estate, who leads the local Government advisory business across the UK.

Professor Michael Parkinson, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Liverpool.

Tim Johnston, head of the business planning team at AMION Consulting.

Alasdair Nimmo, publisher, Super North

Brian Cronin, chief executive, Your Housing Group.

Mark Kitts, assistant director of regeneration, Liverpool City Council.

is difficult,” he said, “so it is important to enable people to have access to jobs wherever they are. We’ve got a big job to do in transport in terms of creating the Northern powerhouse.

“It is not only about city-to-city connectivity for the high-wage economy, but giving people the trains and buses needed to access jobs, getting them into work wherever it is and then back home. This will create economic wellbeing and so support regeneration in a sustainable fashion.”

Philip Rooney of DLA Piper insisted that the key to successful regeneration was involving everyone. He pointed to a European Union report which stated that the most successful cities in Europe were those that not only created economic wealth but also actively involved the community as a whole.

“We’ve heard about aspirations, and that is critical,” he said. “One of the ways in which you raise aspirations is by creat-

Why come here? The reasons are starting to grow and we need to expand and broadcast them...

ing pride. People now have pride in Anfield. I saw this place [the Isla Gladstone Conservatory] when it was completely derelict – it gave a negative signal. Now this is the place to be and there is more optimism.”

The chairman then turned the debate to the importance of the retail sector in regeneration projects, at which point David Green, leader of Bradford City Council, took the floor to report on the Westfield development, currently one of the largest in the North.

“There are some interesting scars on my back from the Westfield development,” Councillor Green said, “which were caused due to the crash – the fault of London. When we got control, it was our priority to get it restarted. If you come to Bradford on November 5, you can see the official opening.

“It was important to get the scheme finished. On top of that, it is going to bring

2,500 jobs. There is a perception that retail jobs aren’t as important as jobs in computers or finance, but there is a large group of people in Bradford who don’t have the skills to become a computer programmer, who can’t go back to university or college and who have perhaps been let down by the education system – and they need jobs.

Cllr Black continued: “Retail jobs are the jobs the semi-skilled feel comfortable applying for, so we have established a retail academy – but we have to finish off the picture. We established a growth zone to help businesses of all sorts to expand in Bradford city centre, through rebates because you only get the money back after a year in business, and also to renovate empty buildings and give extra support for apprentices, all as a part of the wider regeneration.

“As a result of that we now have a thriving quarter of cafés and bars and interesting shops, which any city centre needs to give it that unique selling point. We’re encouraging retail and leisure, encouraging investors and offices – it becomes a circle.”

One area that was being overlooked was how the market reacts to regeneration, and Simon Bedford raised the issue which could be critical in terms of investment.

“Very few people have talked about the market,” he said. “They’ve talked about what we should be doing, but not about what the market wants us to do. The market makes choices on its own. In that context, we have to be realistic: the public sector is getting smaller, the housing market renewal has been a massive loss.

“Actually, we do have too many unfit houses and we need to build on a bigger scale. We need to recognise the difference between need and opportunity.”

Again and again, the narrative returned to Anfield as the example of a successful regeneration project. It was left to Brian Cronin to explain that this was because it was no longer a question of simply replenishing decrepit housing stock.

“The real issues are economic,” he insisted. “People need to live in places where they can be economically active, where they feel they can be part of a community, where they can enjoy their life. The effects of new kitchens and bathrooms keep people happy for four or five years, then they start to drift away. Without a reason for living, even if their homes are built to a reasonable standard it’s not enough.

“We decided we had to change our business if we wanted to retain our community.

Our new role involves looking at economic wellbeing, health and education, things that create a sustainable community. We are no longer just working in the field of housing, we have moved further up the chain.”

And all the while the Isla Gladstone Conservatory, once a flagship of the Victorian success story, stands as a constant reminder of how far Liverpool’s regeneration has already come.

Electrification and the whole picture The Forum heard Councillor David Green – leader of Bradford City Council and a man described as “always good value in any debate” – raise concerns about the devolution of opportunity, and in particular that the emphasis to date appears to have been on the core cities.

Bradford does not happen to be one of these, and Cllr Green argued that the

North’s four core cities simply “relied on everyone else”, as “a huge chunk” of the population does not live in them. “Some 25,000 people a day travel from Bradford to Leeds,” he said. “It is up to us to push back on this and make the case that it should be devolution for all.”

Cllr Green went on to point out that he had been involved in six months of discussions into electrification of

the railways in the North. “The thing that blew my mind,” he said, “was that Network Rail do not take into account economic factors – so they don’t think in terms of using the electrification of rail from Leeds to Manchester as an opportunity to improve Bradford’s economy.

“It’s about time we looked at the holistic picture.”

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Co-operation

Minister puts his powerhouse push behind Enterprise Zones That’s vital to covering the whole of the North, he tells Mike Cowley

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he Northern powerhouse is a deal for the whole of the North of England, not just for the core cities as critics such as Councillor David Green, leader of Bradford City Council, have been suggesting (see page 3).

While Manchester appears to have grabbed the lead in the devolution stakes, the official line – and it stands up to scrutiny – is that this happened because Manchester got its act together first and other conurbations now need to follow suit.

Even rival Liverpool has yet to submit a formal devolution bid.

To redress the balance at least in part, all Northern councils and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are being urged to come together to make a case for at least having Enterprise Zones in their areas, as these are increasingly showing positive economic results and becoming catalysts for infrastructure and regeneration. (Gone are the days when Enterprise Zones were the setting for

James Wharton: ‘Tell us what you need’

musical business chairs as canny companies simply moved “down the road” to take advantage of incentives such as rate reductions.)

That was the message from James Wharton, the Northern powerhouse minister, when Super North caught up with him after a two-day fact-finding tour of the North West which took in two of the potentially most successful Enterprise Zones: Manchester Airport and Wirral Waters.

And as the solitary Conservative MP in the North East – he was quoted in the last issue of Super North as describing himself as “the only Tory in the village” – he readily admits to declaring a personal interest in ensuring that the powerhouse concept is pan-Northern.

Mr Wharton’s recent trip also took in Cheshire and North Wales, but the benefits of making a case for Enterprise Zones were there for all to see in what

is happening both at Manchester Airport and Wirral Waters.

Manchester’s Airport City was always regarded as a winner in the Enterprise Zone stakes because of its close proximity – as the name suggests – to Manchester Airport, the undisputed international gateway for air passengers both in and out of the North of England. Business rate discounts of up to £275,000, superfast broadband and simplified planning procedures provided the icing on the corporate cake.

With the airport’s close financial links to Beijing and the fact that the last Budget effectively endorsed its growth by 50 per cent, here is an unrivalled Enterprise Zone success story. And although James Wharton was clearly impressed by what was happening there, what he saw at Wirral Waters, part of the Peel-backed Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone, also captured his imagination in terms of what can be achieved.

The Wirral Waters project itself stands out, in that it will transform 500 acres of semi-derelict dockland over the next 30 years, but it is the initiative taken by Wirral Metropolitan College – which is building a skills campus to produce the tradespeople needed for the ongoing work – that really grabbed the minister’s attention. So the next generation of plasterers, brickies and electricians will be trained and placed directly as part of the Enterprise Zone.

“These are two prime examples of the benefits Enterprise Zones can bring,” James Wharton says. “And that is why we want local authorities to get together with their LEPs to make a case for more of these – and we will be happy to listen.”

Then again, both these zones are linked to core cities – so does this not suggest that the criticism has some foundation? The minister insists this is simply not the case.

“True, the core cities are areas of obvious potential, but the rest of the North has a part to play as well,” Mr Wharton says.

“There has to be something in this for everyone. I’m from Teesside and that’s not a core city, but Teesside is discussing a devolution deal at the moment.

“Just yesterday I was in Cheshire and North Wales, neither of which has a core city, discussing what they want. Next week I will be in York, yet again not a core city.

While it is really important to build the core cities, it is vital that all the other areas in the North buy into devolution.

“This is a fundamental shift from what has gone before: the top-down, one-sizefits-all model. What we are saying is to come and tell us what you need, as we realise that North Yorkshire has different needs to Greater Manchester. But it requires them to come to us to choose to be part of the process.

“There is a real enthusiasm for the Northern powerhouse, though some of the comments from Westminster MPs who are sceptical simply do not reflect what we are hearing from local authorities and business leaders in the North. But they still need to come to us and present their case.

My door is always open.”

Working together (from left): Robert Hough, chairman of Liverpool LEP; minister James Wharton; Sue Higginson, principal of Wirral Metropolitan College; and Neil Lees, deputy chairman of Peel

While we build the core cities, it is vital that all the other areas in the North buy into devolution

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Regeneration

Hitting big goals to meet Anfield’s revival challenge Your Housing Group pursues a winning strategy for historic Liverpool area despite funding snags, says Michael Cape

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nfield is home to Liverpool football club, which places it among the world’s most famous neighbourhoods – but it had also, until recently, been one of the most deprived areas in the city. Situated not far from the reborn and vibrant waterfront, it remained a constant reminder of the times when Liverpool hit the economic buffers and was in danger of being written off by the Government.

Now, though, after a number of false dawns, Anfield is bouncing back, giving fresh hope and confidence to a close-knit community which has endured decades of deprivation.

A mixture of primarily home-owned or privately rented houses, with some magnificent Victorian terraces which were once home to the city’s vibrant dock labour as well as to the area’s professional class, Anfield had originally been developed as a densely urban area sitting outside the overcrowded and inhospitable city centre and with access to Stanley Park for recreation.

But that was long before the neighbourhood suffered from multiple, complex and deep-rooted problems.

The glue that has somehow held Anfield together is the undeniable community spirit that refuses to be cowed in the face of adversity. Here is a place where successive generations have lived in the same terraced houses, with often only Liverpool’s renowned black humour giving them something to smile about. (Where else would you find the local Roman Catholic cathedral referred to as Paddy’s Wigwam, or the black glass, visor-shaped building on Mann Island as Darth Vader’s summer home?)

The residents certainly needed this perverse view of things when the plug was pulled around five years ago on a previous regeneration project backed by the Government-funded Housing Market Renewal Initiative (HMRI). This had seen significant demolition of old housing, supported by local residents who called for change after it emerged that Liverpool FC wanted to develop its stadium. The residents had largely been rehoused in newbuild and renovated properties in the area and were hoping to see further regeneration take place.

There was then another blow with talk of Liverpool FC moving its stadium to

Director Lorraine Donnelly: Praising people

nearby Stanley Park, effectively ripping the heart out of Anfield. But when that plan was changed – and work is now under way to extend the current football stadium on its historic site – the ongoing regeneration of Anfield became a reality once again and the uncertainty dissipated.

The catalyst for this has not just been the football club, however, but has come in the form of Your Housing Group – one of the North West’s leading social housing players – and a partnership formed with Liverpool City Council, Liverpool FC and Keepmoat Homes.

When the HMRI was chopped, it was Your Housing Group which worked with Liverpool City Council to develop an alternative sustainable plan. Previously known as the Liver Group, its commitment to the area goes back decades, meaning that it has the lion’s share of Anfield’s housing stock and is committed to ensuring that the area is a pleasant place in which to live.

Lorraine Donnelly, development director of Your Housing Group, has found herself living with the Anfield story since she started work with the Liver Group 21 years ago. “When the Government funds stopped, we had to think how we were going to finish off the project,” she recalls.

“We were effectively stopped in our tracks – but the one thing that was certain was that we weren’t going to walk away from it.”

And they didn’t walk away. Working closely with the council, developer Keepmoat and a range of proactive residents’ associations, Your Housing Group is now at the forefront of the £260 million Anfield Project.

Since the regeneration project started a little over two years ago, some 369 homes have either been built or refurbished. Part of the development has seen Your Housing Group combine terraces to make more substantial, modern, eco-friendly homes and enhance some of the larger Victorian properties to the point where, if they were in London, they would carry price tags in

We were effectively stopped in our tracks but we were not going to walk away

Change for the better: Exhausted housing stock has now been transformed into ‘quite enviable’

excess of £1m. Some would say you could have bought all of Anfield for that at one time.

What has been of equal importance to the success of the project is that it has instilled a sense of renewed pride in the residents themselves, boosted in part by the city being named the European Capital of Culture in 2008 and culminating in the giant Sea Odyssey marionettes visiting Anfield in April 2012.

Owner-occupation has been encouraged through the introduction of a scheme which enables residents to buy a home for £1 in return for maintaining it as their main residence for at least five years and carrying out specified improvement works to an agreed standard within one year. Liverpool City Council is also providing loans to private owners to improve the frontage of their properties.

Your Housing Group has, however, taken a holistic view of Anfield and realised that if the community is to return to its former glory it will need more than just improved housing stock. That is why the Anfield Project will not only continue to bring both new and refurbished homes, but also new jobs through a flagship hotel complex in Anfield Square (the announcement of a global brand name is expected at any time), restaurants and shops – all the elements you would expect to see in a thriving community.

The environment is to be improved through the provision of “pocket parks”, where derelict houses had once stood. Nor has the need for a thriving high street been overlooked, and it is likely that redevelopment of individual blocks to create a mix of new retail, community and residential facilities will be the next step once consultation and planning consents have been undertaken.

Plans are due to be submitted for proposed new office premises in Anfield

Square alongside the hotel, and this will see Your Housing Group relocate its Merseyside headquarters to Anfield in due course.

Job creation and training are also high on the agenda. In the past two years, Your Housing Group has worked with local contractors to maintain as many 42 people employed on housing projects, with up to 65 per cent employed within a five-mile radius of the project. New jobs have been created for 14 people, including two apprentices and four work experience placements.

Yet for all the high-profile names involved in the regeneration, Lorraine Donnelly says that none of this would have happened without the active backing of the Anfield residents who have taken up the challenge of investing in and improving their own homes. “They are wonderful people,” she says. “There is a large core of people who have lived there all their lives and who truly care about Anfield.”

She has got to know many of them personally over the years, and cites the example of a 90-year-old who was born in the house she still lives in, having spent her married life there as well. Then there is the 80-year-old who was rehoused ten years previously and who called her recently – being surprised that she still had same phone number – to ask for advice on equity release so she could “carry on enjoying her life in Anfield”.

Residents who had moved out are returning to live in the heart of Anfield, and there is also now a waiting list for homes rather than a surplus of housing due to poor demand.

Your Housing Group is clearly a business, but Lorraine Donnelly insists it regards itself as being “commercial with a heart”. What pleases her most is that Your Housing Group is now in a position to finish what was started and finally bring years of Anfield deprivation to an end.

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Transport

The imperative of keeping on a fast track to tomorrow

That ‘pause for thought’ on Pennines electrification won’t dent prime movers’ plan, says Michael Cape

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he headline-grabbing announcement from earlier this summer of a “pause” in the railway electrification work across the Pennines between Leeds and Manchester – leading some who should know better to claim it would derail the Northern powerhouse initiative – turns out to be nothing more than a temporary halt in the sidings, awaiting the green signal.

While there is indeed a pause, it appears to be a pause for thought, for reflection, to ensure that all the ducks are in a row for what is an immensely complex project, before the start button is pressed once again.

“The next franchise for the route between Leeds and Manchester will bring modern trains and more capacity, but current work on electrification east of Stalybridge will be paused to ensure the scheme maximises benefits for passengers and helps build a powerhouse for the North.”

This is the considered view of Nick Spall of Network Rail, who is accountable for all electrification and enhancement projects in the North West, and it is a view shared by Chris Nutton, the man responsible for train service planning and major infrastructure projects for First TransPennine Express (TPE).

As both their organisations have been in the vanguard of rail improvements in the North of England, the two men agreed to speak exclusively to Super North to clarify the situation. When news of the pause first broke, it seemed as though a major obstruction had been thrown on to the line along which the entire project was running.

The reality, however, was that the electrification project was just part – an important part, admittedly, but still merely a part – of an ongoing £1 billion strategic rail plan for the North which started three years before George Osborne coined the “Northern powerhouse” phrase.

“There is still a lot of work taking place to improve rail services across the North,” says Nick Spall. “Passengers are already seeing the benefits of this. Network Rail completed the electrification of the route between Manchester, Liverpool and Wigan earlier this year.

TPE’s Chris Nutton: Project planner

“We have also made major improvements around Huyton and Roby which have helped to deliver faster train services between Manchester and Liverpool – and there is much more to come.”

Chris Nutton adds his thoughts: “No matter what, the pause is not going to stop the ongoing rail network improvements across our region.”

But what this temporary setback did succeed in doing was to effectively overshadow the world-beating engineering feats that have been taking place and which will underpin the North’s bid to become the economic engine-room of the UK. The reality is that the last two years have witnessed a transformation eclipsing everything encountered by Messrs Spall and Nutton during their combined 30plus years in the rail industry. “We have literally never seen anything like it,” insist both men independently.

Nor for that matter has there been anything to compare with what has taken place of late since the first rail infrastructure was laid down more than 150 years ago. Although it was a much-heralded accomplishment at the time, the Victorians had it relatively easy in that they were laying track where none had gone before, so did not have to undertake groundbreaking work while ensuring minimum disruption for today’s ever-growing army of train passengers.

With UK train traffic having effectively doubled in the past 20 years – TPE has seen its passenger load increase from 13

million to around 29 million in slightly more than a decade – the current infrastructure work has been variously described as “trying to build Wembley Stadium while the FA Cup final is in progress”, or “attempting to rebuild the M6 without traffic cones”.

Such has been the complexity of the projects needed to redress the generations of neglect, while ensuring that train services do not grind to a halt, that only a rail engineer or a civil engineer could fully appreciate (or indeed understand) what has been happening. But there is little doubt some of the engineering projects, such as at the Farnworth Tunnel (see panel opposite), would have had the big-name Victorian engineers raising their top hats in admiration.

Nick Spall has been responsible for the renovation of Manchester Victoria station, which has been transformed from “tired old lady” status to an iconic structure providing a fitting gateway to Manchester. In a five-year, £44m redevelopment that serves as a testament to the commitment to invest in the rail network, the station – which once held the title of worst in the country – now includes a contemporary roof spanning 10,000 square metres with almost 400 panels, and there has also been restoration of many heritage features in the Grade 2 listed building.

Starting in spring 2013 – when scaffolding was erected to install a temporary roof deck, allowing the leaking old one to be dismantled – significant improvements were made to the concourse including a new fully accessible bridge linking to the 21,000-seat arena next door, thus helping to separate the arena crowds from those who want to catch the train or tram.

Network Rail worked in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester to incorporate expansion of the Metrolink network at Manchester Victoria into the redevelopment of the station. Tracks into the station have been completely remodelled and expanded from two to three, and the Metrolink stop now has four platforms to provide additional capacity.

The work was completed to tie in with the Second City Crossing – a multimillion-pound programme of Metrolink improvements across the city – that will ultimately allow more frequent tram services to run through this famous old station and so provide better links with the national rail network.

Opening this autumn, the new-look Manchester Victoria will have as much impact on the city – and on travel in the

All change: Manchester Victoria Station – transformed from ‘tired old lady’ to an iconic structure providing a fitting gateway to the city

No matter what, it’s not going to stop the ongoing rail network improvements across our region

North – as it did when it was first opened in 1844.

Manchester Victoria, however, forms just one part of the much wider £1bn-plus North of England Programme. Scheduled for completion in 2019, this will allow hundreds more trains to run each day and provide space for millions more passengers per year, running as far as Newcastle upon Tyne and Hull in the east to Liverpool and Blackpool in the west.

Just how important is this? The story so far is that the programme will provide £4bn of wider economic benefits to the region and potentially 20,000 to 30,000 new jobs. Every £1 spent will boost the economy by £4. It will also deliver major improvements for rail passengers in the form of two new fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool, reducing journey times by up to 15 minutes, while six fast trains per hour between Leeds and Manchester will cut ten minutes off the trip.

There will also be new direct services through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport, and faster journey times linking key towns and cities across the North. The work also includes electrification of key routes between Manchester and Liverpool (recently completed), and between Manchester and Blackpool via Bolton and Preston. So it does appear that electrification is still very much on the agenda despite the pause across the Pennines.

Work is currently well under way to electrify the Preston-Bolton-Manchester route, thus tackling the busiest rail corridor in and out of Manchester. This, in turn, will impact favourably on the boom-in-demand rail route run by TPE between the Northern England and Scotland, where Chris Nutton was instrumental in implementing a new £60m fleet of electric trains in 2014. The investment allowed cascading of the existing diesel fleet down on to other routes, easing the

7

AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT, DISTRIBUTED WITH THE TIMES

Super North

Transport

Where boring is exciting

Farnworth Tunnel: A modern engineering challenge that would have impressed the Victorians

O pressure ahead of the wider electrification.

Despite such successes, though, Mr Nutton remains concerned at the gap that remains in the North-South divide in terms of rail travel. “All the statistics clearly show that every part of the North

Network Rail’s Nick Spall: Benefits

is behind the South East in infrastructure spend,” he says. “When we have talked about inter-city rail services previously, this has traditionally involved London, yet we serve seven of the UK’s biggest cities up here.”

A lot of work has already been done to make that step change to improving services, and the setting-up of the Transport for the North body will ensure that aspirations are maintained while providing a strong voice for the rail sector in the region, rather than it mainly being subjected to decisions made in Whitehall.

Chris Nutton points out that, despite the pause, there are still many reasons for rail passengers to be excited about

the future of services in the North: new diesel trains are on their way to bring more seats, there will be more services each hour between major cities such as Manchester and Leeds, and trains will have free Wi-Fi. All of this will make a tangible difference to people’s journeys independently of electrification.

“Your average passenger wants a highquality train, they want to be able to get a seat, they want reliability and they want a value-for-money fare,” Mr Nutton says.

“While electrification underpins what is needed for all of these in the long term – bringing the operating cost down – there will be capacity increases created by more diesel trains, in particular between Manchester and Leeds.”

The ongoing infrastructure work provides much-needed track capacity that will boost frequency but also enable TPE to tackle the main issue it faces in terms of passenger satisfaction: overcrowding.

This has been a priority for the company in recent years as increased demand has intensified the problem, and it will be top of the agenda when the new rail franchises are handed out next April.

The strict criteria for awarding franchises call for an increase in capacity by 45 per cent and no off-peak standing, both of which TPE believes are achievable by 2018.

Time, then, for the final word on the pause. “You simply need to put it into context,” Chris Nutton says. “The proposed cost of electrification from Manchester to York was in the region of £300m, yet more than £1bn is being spent on infrastructure projects that are being built now – Manchester Victoria and Farnworth Tunnel, to name just two.

“There was a lot of doom and gloom about the announcement, but there is committed, wider investment in services and infrastructure which means there are many, many reasons for rail passengers to be cheerful for future rail services.”

f all the outstanding major engineering projects undertaken in the £1 billion-plus North of England Programme, Farnworth Tunnel would arguably be the one to have most impressed the Victorian trailblazers who laid the original lines.

The Northern investment programme has also had the biggest impact in the professional life of Nick Spall, the civil engineer responsible, who gets to build “one of the world’s biggest Meccano sets”. As one of Mr Spall’s friends observed after hearing details of what he was doing, he had finally landed himself “the best job in the world”.

While the self-effacing engineer describes his work “as digging holes and pouring in concrete”, it is part of a meticulous planning process for each rail infrastructure project. Mr Spall’s team comes in when the outline design and implementation has been approved, and they then make it a reality on the ground.

The electrification of Farnworth Tunnel, however, provided a challenge the like of which Nick Spall – a man who relishes the difficult – had never before seen during his 17-year career in the rail industry. True, he had previously overseen the renewal of Network Rail’s fixed telecoms network – a formidable task in its own right – but that was a minnow in terms of complexity when compared to Farnworth.

Sitting slap-bang on the key line between Manchester and Bolton – one of the region’s busiest rail routes – the task facing the Network Rail team was how to complete the work with minimum disruption to passengers. The prize was to effectively open up the Lancashire triangle to an enhanced train service.

Constructed in the 1830s, Farnworth Tunnel is not one but two 270-metre tunnels – a large one and a small one – enabling trains to pass through using either one or the other. But both tunnels are too small for the overhead power lines to fit inside while providing clearance for the trains.

Various options were considered, but balancing the need to maintain a train service while carrying out the work meant that only one proposal was viable.

That was to make the big tunnel even bigger to accommodate two electrified rail tracks, while running a passenger service through the smaller tunnel for the duration of the work.

What that involved was to fill in the “hole” with 7,500 square metres of foam concrete, then bore the entire thing out to make the tunnel large enough.

Problem one was the lack of a boring machine of sufficient size to do the job – even the one that had been burrowing its way through London on the £30bn Crossrail project was unsuitable.

Undeterred, the team turned to a firm in Oldham to make something that could do the job.

The result was a giant machine of 9 metres in diameter – named Fillie following a competition involving local schoolchildren – when its baby brother at Crossrail could only manage 7.1 metres.

Fillie started boring this month and is expected to break through in September.

Work began in March with the team working day and night, and Network Rail and its contractors will have logged 580,000 man hours by the time the tunnel reopens in October. Electric trains will be able to run along the route connecting Manchester, Bolton and Preston next year.

That was the relatively easy part, however. The real difficulty lay in

coming up with an integrated plan to allow busy commuters to still pass through Farnworth Tunnel while all the work was going on. This was achieved courtesy of a masterclass in co-operation between Network Rail and the operators First TransPennine Express (TPE) and Northern Rail – co-operation which is likely to serve as a model for similar rail infrastructure ventures in the future.

Highly detailed planning saw Farnworth reduced to a singleline operation for six months, with the number of trains at peak times cut from eight an hour in each direction to four. This did not mean that regular commuters missed out, though, as trains were increased in length – which in turn meant that the platforms they serviced had also to be extended for that period, a major logistical operation in itself.

“The really impressive thing about Farnworth is the amount of planning and communications we did as an integrated team with TPE and Northern Rail,” says Mr Spall. “This joined-up approach will be absolutely pivotal for us to successfully deliver the £1bn-plus investment over the next few years.

“If you are a rail passenger in the North West of England you will be seeing some historic and amazing engineering feats over the next few years, which are all being delivered to improve services.”

So how do the passengers faced with such lengthy disruption view the project? Well, because Network Rail and the operators agreed a joint communications strategy – speaking with one voice to explain what was going on both before and during the work – it seems to have been a triumph.

From the many thousands of TPE passengers who continue to travel under these conditions, there have been only five complaints.

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