The Northern Agenda: Beauty pageant results delayed

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By ROB PARSONS - June 30 2022

Remember back in October when Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a contest to host the new HQ for Great British Railways, a site he said would "take pride of place at the heart of a new era for Britain’s railways"?

The competition was officially launched with great fanfare (and the help of noted rail buff Michael Portillo) in February but since then things have gone rather quiet.

The 42 applicants - including a number of frontrunners from the North like York, Doncaster, Crewe and Stockton-on-Tees - were told a shortlist would be announced in May, which was pushed back to early June and then updated on the Department for Transport (DfT) website to the rather more vague "summer 2022".

The bidding areas have invested significant resources in developing their bids and preparing for a "public vote" to choose the eventual winner. But with no clarity about when this will be, they're struggling to plan amid the many other challenges local authorities face.

It's understood that the shortlisting by the DfT should be happening "imminently" and possibly as soon as next week. The recent national rail strikes were blamed for the delay though these were not announced until June 7.

Great British Railways is the new overarching body that will administer the infrastructure and running of much of the UK network from 2023. Though there will be a public vote the Government retains an executive power of decision before it reveals the winner.

Dr Nicola Headlam,