Engineers at Northern Rail’s Newton Heath depot received a very important guest yesterday as the Prime Minister paid them a visit to outline plans for electrification of the Transpennine route between Manchester and Leeds.
Announcing the plans ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the Prime Minister was met at Piccadilly by Northern Managing Director, Ian Bevan, before riding to the depot in the cab of a Northern train.
On arrival at Newton Heath, Mr Cameron was welcomed by Northern’s Engineering Director, Stuart Draper, who gave him a tour of the depot and introduced him to apprentices working on the trains.
Ian Bevan comments: “We are obviously delighted that the Prime Minister has been able to see the work we do here at Newton Heath.
“As one of our major depots, servicing over one third of our fleet, it is a key operation and one that keeps thousands of passengers moving around our network every day.
“We welcome the announced investment into the rail industry and are pleased to hear the plans for electrification of a huge part of the Northern network.
“This will bring increased capacity, faster journey times, reduced maintenance costs and lower carbon footprint.”