Yorkshire's three Mayors, working with Lord Blunkett, have published a credible and affordable plan to transform the region's rail network. It sets out how we can work with Government to deliver faster services, new stations and better connections across Yorkshire.
Lord Blunkett, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard and York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith published Yorkshire's Plan for Rail in May 2025.
The plan sets out a credible and affordable route to transforming Yorkshire's rail network, from new and upgraded stations to faster, more frequent services across the region. It shows how Government can work with Yorkshire's leaders to deliver a 21st century rail network that unlocks economic growth, creates jobs and makes Yorkshire an even better place to live and work.
Read our press release from the Yorkshire's Plan for Rail launch in Leeds on 16 May 2025.
Yorkshire's plan for rail identifies several new stations as critical for unlocking housing and economic growth across the region. In West Yorkshire, these include White Rose, Elland, Thorpe Park and a Leeds Bradford Airport Parkway station. A new through station in Bradford city centre is also a priority. Connecting Bradford to the TransPennine Route Upgrade corridor at Huddersfield, giving the city a 12-minute journey to Leeds and 30 minutes to Manchester.
Across the wider Yorkshire region, Haxby, Rotherham Gateway, Waverley and Dearne Valley Parkway are also identified as new stations that would support thousands of new homes and jobs. Improving accessibility at existing stations is equally important, currently 72% of the region's 146 stations do not have compliant step-free access.
Yorkshire's rail services are significantly slower and less frequent than comparable city pairs elsewhere in the UK. Leeds to Sheffield currently has just one fast service per hour, while Liverpool to Manchester has four. Travel between Bradford and Sheffield requires an indirect journey, and Bradford has no direct services to Sheffield at all.
The plan calls for four fast trains per hour between Leeds and Sheffield, improved services on the York to Scarborough line, and new services linking Bradford to the TransPennine Route Upgrade corridor. Northern Rail's average fleet age is 23.6 years (seven years older than the national average) and the plan calls for a new rolling stock programme to replace more than 200 ageing diesel trains, with new trains entering service from 2030.
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is a major programme to improve rail connections across the North of England. Yorkshire's plan calls for NPR packages that would improve connectivity between Leeds and Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield, Sheffield and Manchester, and deliver a new central Bradford station.
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), the single largest rail investment the Government has made in the North in decades, is already under way, employing more than 5,000 people across 70 active work sites. Yorkshire's plan builds on TRU by setting out what comes next, including electrification of the Calder Valley and Harrogate lines in the 2040s, a new Bradford to Huddersfield link, and NPR services from Manchester through to Sheffield and North Yorkshire.
The White Rose region's economy is £25 billion smaller than it should be, with a productivity gap of £20 billion and a shortfall equivalent to 83,000 jobs. The plan identifies targeted rail investment as a direct way to close that gap, with the potential to add £20 billion to regional GVA over ten years and support the creation of 83,000 jobs and 210,000 new homes.
Rail connectivity already generates around £850 million per year in economic value across the region through passenger journeys and reduced road traffic. Train operators and Network Rail employ around 6,500 people locally and spend approximately £550 million with suppliers. Improving the network would significantly increase that contribution and for every £1 invested in the Northern rail network, at least £4 is generated in wider economic value.
