It seems that Network Rail has submitted proposals for improving the Leeds – Manchester trans-Pennine route to the Department for Transport. But it is not going to tell us what they are. Given the huge public outcry which brought Secretary of State Chris Grayling to the House for an emergency debate, the woeful record of Network Rail in both costing and delivering new projects, especially those concerned with electrification, and the small fact that it is a publicly funded organisation, is this acceptable? Now is the time to air them, not when Network Rail and DfT deign to publish having, on past record, already effectively decided.
