A campaign to make York the heart of the national rail network as the home for the incoming state-owned Great British Railways (GBR) body has received a significant boost.
Conservative-led North Yorkshire County Council has approved aligning itself with the Liberal Democrat and Green coalition-run City of York Council’s bid to redevelop the so-called Teardrop site near York Station, ahead of GBR taking oversight of the country’s rail transport from next year.
The move has come despite other neighbouring authorities, which also boast the key government pre-requisite of having a rich railway heritage, such as Darlington and Stockton on Tees, being among the 42 provincial places that had expressed interest in providing a base for GBR.
As part of a series of rail industry reforms Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hopes GBR will end the fragmentation in the sector and accelerate benefits and improvements across the network for passengers and freight customers.
A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive heard the introduction of GBR in York would also help propel the Government’s commitment to levelling up the UK, particularly as numerous highly skilled jobs in the city.
Members agreed to send an appeal to the minister, which will also be signed by five MPs and City of York Council, stating there is “clear cross-party support” for creating the headquarters in York.
The letter states the case for extra levelling up help in York is strong as about a quarter of York is listed within the country’s more deprived communities and has a six times greater concentration of rail skills and expertise than anywhere else in the country.
It states:
“Our academic institutions are already helping to level up York and the North – something GBR’s arrival will accelerate.
“In the medium-term, York Central is a unique opportunity to drive forward and create a globally competitive rail cluster. Thanks to the government, city centre brownfield site already has Enterprise Zone Status and outline planning permission.
“Network Rail already owns much of the site site, which includes the £60m expansion of the National Railway Museum and the proposed central government hub that creates significant opportunities for co-location and shared facilities.”
The county council’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, dismissed suggestions that its support for York was down to political expediency ahead of the expected formation of a combined authority for York and North Yorkshire in 2024.
He said while North Yorkshire was part and parcel of the same sub-region and functioning economic area as the city, Darlington and Stockton were “key partners in another region to the north of us”.
He said:
“Yes, it would be helpful for the top end of North Yorkshire if Darlington or Stockton were the headquarters, but York has the capacity and the capability as it has the available land already, it has the headquarters of Network Rail and it has numerous rail companies that feed into the rail industry that are based in York at this time.
“There are a lot of opportunities in York which are starting to gel and the Great British Railways headquarters would be a perfect opportunity to capitalise on that set of premises and land that is available.”
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