Those attending the COP26 summit back in November were puzzled and disappointed that UK President Alok Sharma announced no new UK plan for rail to contribute to climate change. The conference, he said, should give the world hope.But not apparently about rail.
This was because the Department for Transport had yet again kicked any announcements down the road until after the summit. Downing Street rapidly suppressed any further use of the BBC ‘Look North’ interview a couple of weeks earlier in which the Prime Minister promised ‘we are going to do NPR’ which is ‘a fantastic thing’, a ‘massive package’ which would ‘hugely benefit those lines’. ‘You are going to be very pleased with announcements on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail’ he had proclaimed.
