Written evidence submitted by the Halifax and District Rail Action Group (MTP0065) 1 Our group The Halifax and District Rail Action Group1 is a campaigning rail users’ group, founded in 1985 partly to press the case for reopening of Brighouse station and the lines between Halifax and Huddersfield, Sowerby Bridge and Mirfield. We saw success in May 2000. We continue to campaign for improvement and development of passenger train services in the area around Halifax, Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse, extending along the Calder Valley Lines towards Bradford, Leeds, York, Huddersfield, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool. Our aims have always been towards a better local and global environment. Frustrated at lack of progress towards electrification of our line and others, along with four other groups on the Calder Valley line we launched a campaigning initiative, the Electric Railway Charter2 (ERC) in May 2018. The other ERC founding groups are STORM (Rochdale area), Upper Calder Valley Renaissance Sustainable Transport Group, and Bradford Rail Users group, supported by the Yorkshire and North West branches of Railfuture. We work closely with Stalybridge-Huddersfield Rail Users Group who have their own concerns – which we share – on the need for full electrification of the York- Huddersfield-Manchester line within the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU). This submission is written by Stephen Waring as Chair of HADRAG. It reflects our own concerns and those of the Electric Railway Charter. The following are thoughts and concerns reflecting the views of concerned rail users on future infrastructure priorities for our locality and wider region. We are submitting this because we wish to bring to the attention of the committee a view on how rail should be repurposed in the future, and in that context our concerns about proposed infrastructure investment affecting our area. 2 Providing infrastructure for good travel patterns after the pandemic, and to combat climate crisis – the concept of “sociable transport”, transport for wellbeing. Covid-19 may have permanently changed travel patterns. The need for city commuting and direct city-to-city travel may be less than previously anticipated. Perhaps this is as much about deciding the kind of world we want to have in the future, as predicting demand. In the present situation prediction is difficult. Our present situation should be seen as an opportunity for rail to provide a more comprehensive service for all. “Sardine-can commuting” was never healthy (physically or mentally) and we do not want it back. What we do want is our railway, supported as it already is by the whole community through taxation, to serve the whole community. The local environment, the wellbeing of local people, and the conversion of all transport to zero- carbon in the fight against climate crisis – these must be primary aims of transport development. Transport infrastructure must be developed to support economic growth – but it must be good growth. At present the prospect of increasing car use is a major concern, with the prospect of worse congestion and poorer quality of living. The infrastructure provided must support a rebranded public transport system that is shown to be safe, and that attracts people away from car travel. We need a transport system including bus, tram, train and active travel modes (walking and cycling properly provided for), that extols the value of people travelling together in good conditions, attracts people away from the car to improve air quality and reduce congestion with physical and mental health benefits, and accelerates progress to zero carbon. Sociable transport, popular transport serving a greater range of travel purposes for leisure as well as work. Transport for wellbeing. All transport infrastructure projects must pass the zero-carbon test. 3 Priorities and concerns (a) Rail electrification. A rolling programme of railway electrification is essential and urgent: A rolling programme will enable skills to be retained and developed. The Rail Industry Association (RIA) has estimated that 30% to 50% of wiring costs can be saved.3 The recent National Infrastructure Commission report on rail needs in the North and Midlands4 (page 65-6) recommends a rolling programme to ensure the Integrated Rail Plan contributes to net-zero. The present Transport Committee inquiry comes between the NIC report and government decisions on both the IRP and the DfT decarbonisation plan. In March 2015, the all-party Northern Electrification Task Force (NETF), chaired by Andrew Jones MP, published its report Northern Sparks5 recommending a programme of electrification across the North of England. On business, economic and environmental criteria the top-ranked scheme was the full Calder Valley Line (Leeds- Bradford/Brighouse-Hebden Bridge to both Manchester and Preston), number one in a list of 12 for an initial five-year programme. In 2021 it is six years since Northern Sparks. No action has been taken. Northern Sparks assumed as baseline that that full electrification of the Manchester- Huddersfield-York route (Transpennine Route Upgrade, TRU) as well as Midland Main Line would be completed. This year is ten years since the original announcement of TRU as a full electrification scheme. No plan of physical action has yet been confirmed on any part of the scheme. Network Rail’s Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS)6 is an excellently produced document, effectively a revolutionary manifesto for electrification as main decarbonisation solution. TDNS states that other solutions such as hydrogen trains and electric trains powered by batteries need to be developed soon, but is equally clear that overhead line electrification (OLE) is the long-term solution to decarbonise traction on the great majority of at present unelectrified rail tracks. We would add that: Whilst hydrogen has a role to play, the generation of hydrogen, we hope in the future from renewably generated electricity, its distribution and then conversion of its stored energy back to electricity – a several-stage process – is several times less efficient than distribution of the same energy through the electrical grid and OLE to trains. A lot of energy is wasted. Battery trains, or bi-mode battery-electrics will have a role to play where OLE installation is impracticable or undesirable.7 We are encouraged to learn that Network Rail is submitting a list of “no-regrets” quick win electrification schemes to the government and are encouraged by their response to a recent letter from us. Electrification will pay for itself. Electric trains are cheaper to buy, cheaper in energy consumption, less complex as machines and therefore cheaper to operate and maintain and longer lasting than trains using alternative fuels (including hybrids). OLE is the most energy- efficient method of delivering power for traction to transport vehicles. The costs of electrifying will be paid back over time by lower costs for train operators. A long-term holistic view of costs and benefits must be taken. → The Treasury must be persuaded of this and the DfT decarbonisation plan must prioritise and give urgency to rail electrification. (b) Case study: local and regional examples related to high-speed rail and major regional enhancements in northern England The recent NIC report8 is thought-provoking and offers hard choices at a high level between regional enhancements (mainly east-west across the Pennines) and long distance high-speed (mainly north-south such as the HS2 eastern arm between Birmingham, East Midlands and Leeds). In a sense, a discussion is provoked on the cases for regional/local/community-serving versus wider regional/national/inter-city/high speed. These categories overlap. HADRAG takes a neutral view on high-speed rail but would prioritise links that maximise availability of rail travel to the whole community over long-distance services that only link cities. Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) would potentially have major local effect in our area, which could be positive or negative, or both – swings and roundabouts. NPR envisages a high-speed rail (HSR) line Leeds-Bradford-Manchester (one stop). This would come through our district of Calderdale but not directly serve it. The enforced secrecy of planning at Transport for the North (TFN) and DfT level means we do not know how much will be in tunnel (assumed most), or what will be the local environmental impact during building as plans/options. → There is a question here about whether options for such schemes should be in the public domain at an earlier stage. → At present much detail is under the cover of items from which the public is excluded at meetings of bodies such as Transport for the North. Whilst we understand there are legal reasons for this, the feeling is of a restriction of democracy. If NPR HSR goes ahead via Bradford: it should provide a better service to the districts it passes through, not just to the three linked cities. There should be a station in Calderdale providing interchange with the Calder Valley Line, local buses and high-quality active travel links (walking/cycling). A similar interchange could be provided west of the Pennines on Rochdale or Oldham (depending on route). We support the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) proposal in their submission to NIC last summer for an early start to NPR Leeds-Bradford with a new station in Bradford linking with the Calder Valley line. This would significantly reduce journey time Rochdale/East Lancs/Calderdale to Leeds and beyond. The WYCA submission also supports CV line electrification.9 Advantages of the NPR route via Bradford include released capacity on Calder Valley Line and Huddersfield Line for better local/regional services allowing increased frequency at more local stations…, …and for freight trains. But… …in an extreme scenario if all local services became all-stations or even most stations, some journey times would increase (whilst decreasing for city-city journeys). In any case NPR promises Bradford-Manchester (a shorter distance than the 40 miles via existing route) in 20minutes (now 55+ minutes); but Halifax-Manchester (32 miles) will still be 40+ minutes.