Kings Speech 2026

[Nicholas Lewis]

Todays Kings Speech has two areas of interest for us

https://assets.publishing.service.g...s_Speech_2026_-_background_briefing_notes.pdf

Firstly is the trailed Crewe-Manchester nill now to be known as the Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill which will

The Bill (formally titled the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill) is foundational to Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), unlocking the delivery of rail capacity into Manchester Piccadilly via Manchester Airport so that people can benefit from better transport links across the region.
● NPR will deliver faster, more reliable and more frequent services between the North of England’s key cities. This enhanced transport network will lead to more housing, improve access to jobs, make it easier for people to travel between towns and cities across the North and provide opportunities for businesses to expand.

Dont get too excited as it goes on to tell us it has three phases

○ The first phase will include upgrades to lines east of the Pennines for delivery in the 2030s, focusing on electrification and upgrades in the Leeds-Bradford, Leeds-Sheffield and Leeds-York corridors, including the stations.
○ In the second phase, the Government will take forward a new route between Liverpool and Manchester via Warrington and Manchester Airport. The adapted High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill will provide the necessary powers to construct and operate the connection into Manchester Piccadilly via Manchester Airport.
○ In the third phase, the Government will deliver better cross-Pennine links over and above the Transpennine Route Upgrade already underway.

The other bill is Railways and Passenger Benefits Bill which will

Low public trust and pride in today’s railway are symptoms of a system which has lost sight of the very people and customers it is meant to serve. The Government is delivering Britain a railway fit for its future.

Seems to me to just the current Railways bill rebadged for the next parliamentary session as its about GBR and presumably is just a cut and paste and runs concurrent with all the committee work thats already taken place.

 

[Trainman40083]

In the King's speech.. Where is Millington? Attachment is a cut and paste from the BBC news article. Sorry, I didn't link the whole article as nothing else was relevant.

 

[jfollows]

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli...gton is a former civil,(5 km) from Altrincham.

Millington
Moss Farm House, Millington
Millington Location within Cheshire
Population	234 (2011)
OS grid reference	SJ728847
Civil parish	Millington and Rostherne Little Bollington with Agden
Unitary authority	Cheshire East
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Altrincham
Postcode district	WA14
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Tatton
List of placesUKEnglandCheshire 53.358°N 2.410°W

Millington is a former civil parish, now in the parishes of Millington and Rostherne and Little Bollington with Agden,[1] in the Cheshire East district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The parish was 8 miles (13 km) from Warrington and 3 miles (5 km) from Altrincham. Its name is a "relic of Saxon clanship – the ton or town of the Millings".[2] The parish is primarily agricultural, with a number of farms including Moss House Farm, Newhall Farm, Mereside Farm, Boothbank Farm and Stonedelph Farm. Millington has been recently described on Britain Streets as a "hamlet or isolated settlement in the inhabited countryside".[3] Millington is situated within the market town Macclesfield. The M56 motorway was close to the parish, which allows travel into areas of Warrington and Manchester, 13 miles (21 km) and 14 miles (23 km) away respectively. In 2011 the parish had a population of 234.

 

[JonathanH]

Dont get too excited as it goes on to tell us it has three phases

Indeed, looks very much like laws to facilitate projects over the longer term, rather than anything they will happen in a physical sense in the lifetime of this parliament.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

In the King's speech.. Where is Millington?

Millington is the area where the original HS2 route from Crewe branched east to Manchester, the main line continuing north to Golborne on the WCML.
There was then a plan to connect to/from Liverpool, so a western junction off HS2 was planned there, though the route onwards to Liverpool was not defined.

Now we have the Liverpool-Warrington-Millington-Airport-Piccadilly route as the new NPR line, adopting the original Millington-Piccadilly branch from HS2 plans.
On the ground Millington is the rather vague area in the right angle south west of the M56 and A556 road junction.
The Crewe-Millington-Golborne sections of HS2 will not be built.

 

[Trainman40083]

Millington is the area where the original HS2 route from Crewe branched east to Manchester, the main line continuing north to Golborne on the WCML.
There was then a plan to connect to/from Liverpool, so a western junction off HS2 was planned there, though the route onwards to Liverpool was not defined.

Now we have the Liverpool-Warrington-Millington-Airport-Piccadilly route as the new NPR line, adopting the original Millington-Piccadilly branch from HS2 plans.
On the ground Millington is the rather vague area in the right angle south west of the M56 and A556 road junction.
The Crewe-Millington-Golborne sections of HS2 will not be built.

Maybe it was Upper Leigh before. But surely you have to connect Crewe, or is it just a low speed turnout where "HS2" and NPR connect?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Maybe it was Upper Leigh before. But surely you have to connect Crewe, or is it just a low speed turnout where "HS2" and NPR connect?

Do you mean High Legh? That is close to where the HS2 route began to bifurcate towards Golborne/Manchester after the A50 crossing.

There's no obvious route from Crewe, unless you build the original 20-mile HS2 alignment east of Northwich.
The Liverpool-Millington NPR route is also undefined but seems to be through Warrington BQ, using the slow and badly aligned low level route from Ditton.
There is a link from Acton Grange on the WCML to the old Warrington Arpley station on the Ditton route, but it certainly isn't high speed, and would give you a circuitous Crewe-Manchester routeing, not much better than the original route via Earlestown.

 

[thenorthern]

Regarding the promises while they are nice I thnk voters will question if they will happen. How many times has eletrifcation in the Sheffield area been promised then cancelled then promised again then paused.

It would be nice if the projects do go ahead but I have me doubts.

 

[Trainman40083]

Do you mean High Legh? That is close to where the HS2 route began to bifurcate towards Golborne/Manchester after the A50 crossing.

There's no obvious route from Crewe, unless you build the original 20-mile HS2 alignment east of Northwich.
The Liverpool-Millington NPR route is also undefined but seems to be through Warrington BQ, using the slow and badly aligned low level route from Ditton.
There is a link from Acton Grange on the WCML to the old Warrington Arpley station on the Ditton route, but it certainly isn't high speed, and would give you a circuitous Crewe-Manchester routeing, not much better than the original route via Earlestown.

Ah yes. High Leigh.. I've spent too much time on the Derby to Crewe line, with a similar place name

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 May 2026 ==

Regarding the promises while they are nice I thnk voters will question if they will happen. How many times has eletrifcation in the Sheffield area been promised then cancelled then promised again then paused.

It would be nice if the projects do go ahead but I have me doubts.

It sounds like... "Look, we are going to deliver Northern Powerhouse rail, and whilst we do it, we will build a bit of line if and when we decide what to call what was HS2".

 

[mike57]

To be honest after a quick read it looks like 'lip service'. This government and a lot of current MPs will be long gone by the time the project gets to boots on the ground even if proposed timescales were adhered to. It then has to survive probably several changes of government, all trying desperately to balance the books, either by raising taxes or cutting spending. Not going to say Never... but certainly not in the foreseeable future.

 

[thenorthern]

Given how badly Labour did in West Yorkshire, I would have thought there would be some mention of the West Yorkshire trams to be honest. You know the one that keeps being delayed.

Just out of interest is it still government policy to electrify the TransPennine route? And has full scale electrifcation work for the line actually started? I know the Midland Main Line electrification has been "paused" beyond Wigston.

 

[Trainman40083]

Given how badly Labour did in West Yorkshire, I would have thought there would be some mention of the West Yorkshire trams to be honest. You know the one that keeps being delayed.

Just out of interest is it still government policy to electrify the TransPennine route? And has full scale electrifcation work for the line actually started? I know the Midland Main Line electrification has been "paused" beyond Wigston.

I presume the Trans Pennine line is to be fully electrified. Currently working between Church Fenton and Leeds, and , I think towards Huddersfield after all the track is sorted.

 

[zwk500]

Just out of interest is it still government policy to electrify the TransPennine route?

Yes.

And has full scale electrifcation work for the line actually started?

Yes.

Manchester-Stalybridge has already been electrified, Huddersfield-York is currently being electrified, Colton Jn - Church Fenton has already been done, delivery of the entire section is planned for 2030. Stalybridge-Huddersfield went out for public consultation not too long ago.

 

[AlexSJW]

Now we have the Liverpool-Warrington-Millington-Airport-Piccadilly route as the new NPR line, adopting the original Millington-Piccadilly branch from HS2 plans.

We do not. The route has not been announced yet, only Liverpool, Manchester, Ringway and Warrington are in the mix. I think you can discount any ten mile tunnel into Manchester. I wonder how new this line will be. The Warrington to Altrincham line may be reused to reach Ringway. Into Piccadilly on upgraded track. Warrington can be hub for trains to Ringway. Manchester to Scotland can be via Ringway and Warrington. Internal Manchester rail given over to Metrolink, inc all viaducts.

So a direct and fast route between Liverpool and Manchester will be about the same times as a hundred years ago. A sort on Northern Crossrail. Some progress.

I wonder what they will do with the CLC.

 

[6Gman]

As a retired politician I have to say that given:

1. how long these things take;
2. how disruptive they are during construction;
3. how few voters depends on the railway other than for relatively short commuting;

I suspect few votes are shifted by such announcements.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Indeed, looks very much like laws to facilitate projects over the longer term, rather than anything they will happen in a physical sense in the lifetime of this parliament.

That is how I read it too.

 

[FMerrymon]

This was all announced in February. It's just the reuse of the current hybrid bill process to enable some of it.

To be honest after a quick read it looks like 'lip service'. This government and a lot of current MPs will be long gone by the time the project gets to boots on the ground even if proposed timescales were adhered to. It then has to survive probably several changes of government, all trying desperately to balance the books, either by raising taxes or cutting spending. Not going to say Never... but certainly not in the foreseeable future.

There isn't currently a cross party agreement on this. Reform have said they will cancel anything agreed for rail in the north and will cancel hs2 phase 1 when they get into government and, since they currently lead in the polls, there is risk in proceeding.

The Crewe-Millington-Golborne sections of HS2 will not be built

Its was bizarre decision to cancel this short bit of phase 2b west. Purely political. But the line remains safeguarded and the government gave an indication that it intends to build a line between Birmingham and Manchester, albeit to start construction in the distant future.

 

[officewalla]

More smoke and mirrors from an inept bunch of chancers to try and convince people that something will be done. As other posts have pointed out, actually doing anything is subject a multitude of political pressures that will change over time. It is still a paused project to electrify to Oxford for example and as the current improvements cannot even me costed and managed properly, there is no immediate prospect of Oxford connecting to the grid. Suspect it will be the same for the projects mentioned today.

 

[Kite159]

So announcing the various long term works already being undertaken for the TP Upgrade again?

Plus throwing up some overhead wires between Leeds & Bradford Interchange to try and win back votes from Yorkshire?

 

[Trainman40083]

More smoke and mirrors from an inept bunch of chancers to try and convince people that something will be done. As other posts have pointed out, actually doing anything is subject a multitude of political pressures that will change over time. It is still a paused project to electrify to Oxford for example and as the current improvements cannot even me costed and managed properly, there is no immediate prospect of Oxford connecting to the grid. Suspect it will be the same for the projects mentioned today.

As you mentioned Oxford, East West are saying Oxford to Bicester will be electrified, so surely it will be done to Didcot. But that is for another thread.

 

[FMerrymon]

So announcing the various long term works already being undertaken for the TP Upgrade again?

Plus throwing up some overhead wires between Leeds & Bradford Interchange to try and win back votes from Yorkshire?

Think it is different to the TRU works.

 

[david1212]

......
The Crewe-Millington-Golborne sections of HS2 will not be built.

As just an addon to NPR this would be of limited use.
Once the trackbed for London <> Birmingham is complete and work moves to the trackbed north from Birmingham Interchange we can only hope that the politicians then in power realise that just a link to the WCML will not overall increase capacity to the north so continuation to Crewe is authorised. After this then Crewe-Millington linking into the new line Liverpool - Manchester Airport - Manchester city centre and on to Golborne.
BUT all speculation for discussion elsewhere, not that the second & third phases of NPR in the speech currently go beyond words.

 

[JamesT]

As you mentioned Oxford, East West are saying Oxford to Bicester will be electrified, so surely it will be done to Didcot. But that is for another thread.

EWR have only proposed electrifying to Oxford Parkway. They’re looking at BEMUs and discontinuous electrification, leaving wiring up Oxford station to someone else.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

So announcing the various long term works already being undertaken for the TP Upgrade again?

Plus throwing up some overhead wires between Leeds & Bradford Interchange to try and win back votes from Yorkshire?

The millitant folk in Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden will want overhead too and even then it won't be enough.

 

[zwk500]

Plus throwing up some overhead wires between Leeds & Bradford Interchange to try and win back votes from Yorkshire?

The grand total of votes swayed by only electrification will be in single figures.

The grand total of votes swayed by the benefits electrification brings will be a hundred or so at the absolute most.

 

[The exile]

The grand total of votes swayed by only electrification will be in single figures

Particularly while it’s in progress (all pain and no gain yet!)

 

[Palmerston]

In the third phase, the Government will deliver better cross-Pennine links over and above the Transpennine Route Upgrade already underway.

Seems like Bradford's through station is back on track! Won't open until at least the 2040s, however, and will probably be cancelled and un-cancelled at least 4 or 5 times in the interim.

 

[The Ham]

The one area where GRB could be useful is with joined up thinking less under the control of ministers.

For example, rolling stock.

With a class 800/802 order, GWR and LNER could have extra coaches ordered to lengthen serval of their 5 coach sets to 9 coaches.

As to create a full length train requires +4 coaches within the existing coach count (i.e. not increasing costs other than due to inflation) the number of full length equivalent could increase (lengthen 10 sets to 9 coaches and gain 1 full length equivalent without increasing the number of coaches).

You could also make the 9 coach sets have 4 diesel engines and one battery pack to reduce for costs and depending on numbers could not have to build any new diesel engines for the 9 coach fleets.

That then allows the extra sets (the other 8 × 5 coach sets freed up from the above) to be moved to XC.

A straight 1:1 swap with 5 coach class 221's would mean no extra coaches but +70 seats per set.

Once you run out of 5 coach sets at XC you do a 4 new units replacing 5 existing (bearing in mind 52 units are needed to run 44 diagrams and the current 22x fleet has 70 units) that's +300 seats in the new sets vs the old sets but still with no extra coaches.

Once XC reaches 52 sets (and there's still class 220's left, as there's 70 of them and we're requiring 52 sets) GBR build 12 new coaches for each 4 class 220 left to create 9 coach sets at XC. This reduces the number of coaches by 4 for each time this pattern is repeated but adds an additional 324 seats to each set which gets lengthened to 9 coaches.

In addition consideration could be given to increasing the number of sets to allow for an extra few (say) 6 sets to allow for future options. This would mean that this was within the often requested stored 221's fleet size, however with lower ongoing costs (the track access charges alone from replacing the existing fleets could run into millions and so could cover a significant amount of the lease costs for these 6 units without XC needing to justify attracting extra passengers).

The above would give GWR and LNER some capacity increases without increasing the number of coaches on lease. As well as significantly increasing capacity at XC either whilst reducing the number of coaches or in addition by adding in the same number of coaches as the stored 221's providing for future options whilst seeing savings to justify many of the extra coaches before needing to increase passenger numbers as part of the business case.

With noticeably higher train capacity at XC and some extra capacity at GWR and LNER it's almost certain that there would be more passengers - and in numbers which would likely have justified a new fleet at XC (although probably one with less capacity than the above could deliver).

 

[3RDGEN]

The one area where GRB could be useful is with joined up thinking less under the control of ministers.

For example, rolling stock.

GBR will not be ordering trains without DfT/Treasury approval, they will need to put a business case together and present it to the DfT for approval since it is the DfT/Treasury/UK Taxpayer who is paying the bill. It's more likely GBR will be told what is/isn't likely to be approved so they don't waste time trying to get approval when there isn't any money, it's just the same with the now long nationalised Network Rail.

 

[The Ham]

GBR will not be ordering trains without DfT/Treasury approval, they will need to put a business case together and present it to the DfT for approval since it is the DfT/Treasury/UK Taxpayer who is paying the bill. It's more likely GBR will be told what is/isn't likely to be approved so they don't waste time trying to get approval when there isn't any money, it's just the same with the now long nationalised Network Rail.

The point being is that the the number of coaches would be broadly the same (it could even be slightly smaller) as the current fleets but with lower running costs and therefore GBR would have an easier job creating a business case.

I've gone into more details on other threads.