A potential underground Manchester Piccadilly station, pushing the case for a new Bradford station and improving capacity at Sheffield are all included in Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) agreements with devolved authorities.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has signed six compact agreements with Combined Mayoral Authorities (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire) a week after announcing its NPR vision.

A potential underground Manchester Piccadilly station, pushing the case for a new Bradford station and improving capacity at Sheffield are all included in Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) agreements with devolved authorities.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has signed six compact agreements with Combined Mayoral Authorities (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire) a week after announcing its NPR vision.

While the documents all say funding will mostly be provided by central government, the starting assumption is that “local contributions will largely be towards, stations, integration, onwards travel and surrounding development”.

The Greater Manchester agreement references an underground station at Piccadilly, describing it as a potential “catalyst and enabler for major regeneration and economic growth”.

It stated: “We agree that the option needs testing further in terms of value for money and delivering the right pan northern growth and transport objectives and a joint process with full transparency between all parties will analysis this further against alternative options.”

Further west in Liverpool, the City Region CA and government will work together on the route for the new Liverpool-Manchester line (phase two of NPR), locations for a new Gateway station and integration with investment in Liverpool Central.

To the other side of Manchester, the West Yorkshire agreement said both parties would “drive forward the joint work on Bradford station business case to reach decisions on the preferred way forward by summer 2026”, aligning NPR and West Yorkshire Mass Transit.

It also says to create a “single holistic plan for Leeds station” which would allow surrounding developments to proceed.

West Yorkshire is set to benefit from the first phase of NPR (improvements of lines from Leeds to Bradford, Sheffield and York), and the agreement states the joint ambition to proceed “in the 2030s”.

It continues: “The 2040 recommendations for Manchester-Bradford and Manchester-Sheffield are also critical parts of the NPR programme.

“We will seek more rapidly to assess options for Bradford-Manchester as part of the work on Bradford station business case, and to unlock early benefits on Sheffield-Manchester (the planned third hourly service) as part of the phase one work at Sheffield station.”

Both the West and South Yorkshire agreements contain this, and that Network Rail development work will include a full assessment on how to deliver four fast trains per hour between Sheffield and Leeds.

South Yorkshire’s agreement also includes a pledge to provide the necessary capacity in Sheffield.

It also states: “We will in particular work together to ensure tram-train interdependencies and options are fully explore as part of the forward joint development work for Sheffield station capacity.”

York and North Yorkshire’s agreement also says a new “coherent” plan for York station will be developed.

The North East agreement mentions the Leamside line, with the first phase of reconnecting Tyneside and Washington with the Tyne & Wear Metro already under way.

The agreement says that if the business case for reopening the rest of the route down to the East Coast Main Line north of Ferryhill demonstrates good value for money and is approved, then “resources are made available for its delivery”.

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