RAIL journeys from Liverpool to Manchester will be slashed to just 30 minutes under a £100m scheme to electrify the ageing line, the Government will announce today.
Work on the 32-mile route – the oldest passenger line in Britain – will begin "immediately" and be completed within four years, Gordon Brown will pledge.
The four-carriage trains will be air-conditioned and will travel at 90mph – instead of the 75mph top-speed achieved by the current diesel trains, which take up to 54 minutes to crawl between the two cities.
The route will pass through Huyton and Newton-le-Willows. As well as being “greener”, they will also be more reliable because electric trains have fewer moving parts and travel 40% farther before breaking down.
The announcement – which follows a long campaign for electrification by Mersey MPs and business leaders – will be hailed by the Prime Minister as a key plank of his plans for Britain's recovery.
Mr Brown will say: "For commuters, the benefits of quicker, more comfortable and more reliable trips are obvious.
"But there will also be enormous advantages to local economies, business and industry, through more jobs, increased tourism and additional freight traffic.
"This is a critical element in our radical plan for recovery and beyond – Building Britain's Future – because transition to a green economy will provide new growth, new jobs, new industries and new opportunities."
The Prime Minister, attending a Cabinet meeting in Cardiff, will also announce the electrification of the London-to-Swansea Great Western line, which will cost a cool £1bn.
Work on the Liverpool-to-Manchester route will be carried out in two phases, to minimise disruption during the installation of electric cables and possible alterations to tunnels, bridges and stations.
Newton-le-Willows to Liverpool will form the second phase. The Lime Street to Bootle Branch junction, and Earlestown East to Newton-le-Willows sections, are already electrified. Riverside MP Lousie Ellman said: "I am delighted. I have been campaigning for this for a long time, and this will make a major difference to Liverpool.
