One of the largest rail projects in Britain, the Transpennine Route Upgrade, will be receiving a £3.9 billion boost says Rail Minister Huw Merriman.

Benefits of this boost will include quicker journey times, reduced carbon emissions and more reliable services between key northern cities such as improved services between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

This added £3.9 billion funding brings the projects total government investment to £6.9 billion as the initial £3 billion is said to deliver benefits such as electrification of tracks by the middle of the decade.

Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: “The Transpennine Route Upgrade represents the first major step in delivering transformed east-west connectivity in the north and I’m delighted to announce this multi-billion-pound funding boost to move to the next stage of delivery.”

As the project progresses further funding will be added; eventually bringing an overall supporting cots of £11.5 billion.

The Government say upgrading the tracks from two to four between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe will allow faster trains to overtake slower stopping journeys and freight journeys. Once the upgrade is complete in the mid-2030s it will offer up to 8 trains per hour, extra seats and cut journey times between Manchester and York by 10 minutes. 

Neil Holm, Managing Director for the Transpennine Route Upgrade, said: Transpennine Route Upgrade is well underway with building the infrastructure that bring passengers more frequent, faster, greener trains, that run on a better, cleaner and more reliable railway for generations to come.”