What makes us different is we put £11bn aside for this...

RACHEL Reeves has insisted there’s a ‘difference’ with her announcement about decade-old plans for rail upgrades in the North.

- JOSEPH TIMAN

The Chancellor visited Greater Manchester yesterday alongside the transport secretary to talk about the investment into the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) announced in the budget.

The upgrade programme, which promises faster and more reliable services from Manchester to Leeds, has been delayed by more than a decade.

Work started a few years ago with the electrification of the Manchester to Stalybridge section, due to be complete by the end of the year. In the budget, Ms Reeves also announced funding to electrify the Bolton to Wigan line, upgrades at Manchester Victoria and £250m for the long-awaited upgrade to the A57 link road to Sheffield.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News at Stalybridge station, Ms Reeves said that, although the TRU project has been announced many times before, there is now money set aside in the budget to pay for it to continue.

She said: “The difference between what we announced last week in the budget and what’s happened over the last decade or so is that, finally, we’ve put a line in the budget to provide the money for the Transpennine Route Upgrade.