Andy Burnham and Northern mayors urge next Prime Minister to meet them to re-think region's cut price rail plan

Mayors from across the North have written to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak urging whoever ends up as Prime Minister to meet them and re-think the Government's cut-price rail plan for the region.

In a letter seen by The Northern Agenda politics newsletter, the five Labour mayors raised their concerns about the controversial Integrated Rail Plan and called on the winning candidate to meet with them to "agree a better way forward for the North".

The call from Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham, Liverpool City Region's Steve Rotheram, North of Tyne's Jamie Driscoll, West Yorkshire's Tracy Brabin and South Yorkshire's Oliver Coppard comes ahead of the two senior Tories' face-to-face debate in Leeds tomorrow (July 28).

After it was unveiled in November, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he £96 billion IRP would slash journey times across the North with 110 miles of new high-speed line, with benefits coming quicker than in the original plans put forward by Transport for the North.

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But it was dubbed 'the great train robbery' by Labour after breaking promises made by Boris Johnson to build a full new high speed line between Leeds and Manchester and to build the eastern leg of HS2 in full all the way to Leeds.

And closer inspection of the plan revealed the requested investment by northern leaders had roughly been cut in half and instead of the new lines promised, much of the cash will go towards upgrades of existing routes.

Northern mayors have long been calling for HS2 to be built in full in the North and for a new high speed Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) network to run from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford.

But instead