Northern Powerhouse Rail can turbocharge Manchester Airport's connectivity to benefit the whole region
There was an advertising slogan from a few years ago that sometimes still springs to mind: “We’re better, connected”.
It’s one of those ‘eats, shoots and leaves’ sentences where a tiny comma makes a world of difference. Taken with the comma, I think it’s an inarguable truth. We are better off when we are better connected. It makes almost everything easier – whether that’s collaborating on a document in real-time or jumping on a plane from Manchester Airport to any of the 200+ destinations we serve. Life is undeniably easier when the connections between us are more straightforward.
It’s when you remove the comma that the situation becomes less clear. Are we actually better connected?
In some senses, we definitely are.
I look out at our airfield and see a plane spotter’s paradise of tailfins representing airlines connecting people to the likes of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Addis Ababa.
On Saturday, we waved off the first direct flight to Delhi with IndiGo, adding to their Mumbai service launched earlier this year.
And earlier today, I witnessed an Emirates-operated Airbus A380 – the world’s largest passenger plane – pulling up to a brand-new pier, delivered as part of our 10-year, £1.3bn transformation of Manchester Airport.
Now in its final stages, that’s a once-in-a-generation private investment in infrastructure, which unlocks the full capacity of our two runways and enables growth from the 32m annual passengers we serve today to nearly 50m.
So, from where I’m standing, it seems fair to say we are better connected to the world than ever before – and I’m very proud of our part in that.
But it’s when I look closer to home that the idea of being better connected becomes more debatable. Here’s a startling thing: in 1970 you could travel by train from Manchester to Sheffield in 56 minutes – now it takes an average of one hour and 24 minutes.
The train journey between Manchester and Liverpool has taken an average of around 48 minutes since the 80s. And capacity has been a continual issue on both routes for decades.
Coincidentally, both those journeys are only around 37 miles.
Compare that to the speed and efficiency of the transport network in and around London that connects commuter towns like Reading, Milton Keynes, St Albans, Luton and others to the city. With its famous Underground, complete with the new Elizabeth Line, you can see a world of difference.
Or compare it to another 37 mile journey in the Randstad region of the Netherlands, where it takes just 26 minutes to get from Amsterdam Schiphol to Rotterdam by rail. An international gateway connecting to a world-famous port city, jointly forming one of the exemplar cases of a globally competitive economic region. Sound familiar? It's certainly our aspiration in the North, but until we're better connected, I'm not sure we're there.
And if you need evidence we aren’t quite there yet, look no further than the latest findings of the UK Trade Barometer, released by Manchester Airport’s parent company, MAG.
It shows Northern businesses had a solid Q3, with 56% of exporters growing order books and 38% entering new markets for the first time – broadly flat on Q2. But when you compare the same figures for London businesses – 67% and 49% respectively – there is still a gap we have to mind.
So, despite all the signs for optimism I see right in front of me every day, we want to be sure that the benefits of having an international airport - that connects you to the long list of destinations I name-checked before - flow to all corners of the North, in the same way they do in London, the Randstad, or any other highly competitive region of the world.
The Government’s continued commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail is a welcome one. It’s important that we get this right and the mistakes of other rail projects are avoided, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that it needs to happen as soon as possible – and I think then we could truly say we’re better connected without the need for a comma.