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Manchester favoured over Leeds by government say MPs
MINISTERS are considering plans for a hugely expensive new rail tunnel in Manchester – despite telling Leeds to concentrate on small-scale transport improvements.
The Department for Transport has admitted a tunnel to link Manchester's Piccadilly and Victoria stations is one possibility being considered by experts aiming to ease the north's rail congestion problem.
But even Manchester Labour MP Graham Stringer said the scheme, previously ditched 30 years ago, would be a "hugely expensive white elephant."
Leeds MPs said their city was losing out and Manchester was being favoured.
Only last week the minister forYorkshire Rosie Winterton stressed the importance of small-scale strategic improvements over major schemes such as the aborted Leeds Supertram.
The original Picc-Vic plans, which would then have cost about 100m, were axed in the late 1970s.
But Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly raised hopes again in the Commons when she said: "A sensibly-costed plan for Manchester, perhaps including linking Victoria and Piccadilly, could lead to far more commuters being able to travel in greater comfort."
Manchester's two main railway stations are only a mile apart.
Last week Ms Winterton urged Yorkshire to consider smaller scale transport projects, saying: "Sometimes we can get caught up on the huge major transport projects and not always think strategically about what are the small changes that can make a key difference."
Leeds North West Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland said: "If Ruth Kelly is seriously looking at spending over 100m on an unnecessary tunnel in the centre of Manchester and won't back a tram network that would transform public transport in Leeds, then they have lost the plot."
Leeds East Labour MP George Mudie said: "Manchester has been treated better than Leeds in terms of everything. I do not understand it. I am cross about it really – transport is just another example."
Ms Winterton told the YEP she was not ruling out major schemes for West Yorkshire and stressed that "we need to look at a mixture of what will deliver economically."
She added: "What we have to make sure decisions benefit the region economically.
"Some of these will be a mixture of large projects and small projects.
"What people want to see are what are going to be good strategic changes that need to be made to deliver for the economy."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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