Rachel Reeves's transport plans sound good but can they be delivered? Analysis by Katherine Forster

She’s not wrong. Fast rail from Liverpool to Hull, HS2 to Manchester and Leeds. Even at one point, a tunnel through the Pennines. Northern Powerhouse. Levelling Up.

All promised. None delivered.

This time, she says it will be different, announcing £15.6billion of investment into city transport in the North and Midlands.

Buses, trams, new stations; £2.5billion for Greater Manchester and new tram stops in Bury, Oldham, and the tram to reach Stockport.

On the other side of the Pennines, £2.1billion to start building West Yorkshire Mass Transit by 2028. And more projects from Tyne and Wear to Birmingham.

At a bus manufacturer in Rochdale, Reeves announced that the Government is “committed to growth everywhere”, and that the Treasury’s Green Book rules were being torn up (which tend to favour the capital and South East).

Next week’s Spending Review will bring hard choices, as increased defence spending and global uncertainty over trade make Reeves’s task all the harder.

Real-terms cuts are coming. And tax rises are likely.

So the Government yesterday was trying to get on the front foot. And Labour have been bruised by its drubbing in the local elections last month. Many of their own MPs, fearful of losing their seats after just one term, have been pushing for spending in the North.

Back in January, Reeves announced an infrastructure splurge, which focused on London and the South East.

They seem to have learnt some lessons from that. But is yesterday's announcement all it’s cracked up to be?

The Conservatives have accused Labour of “copying and pasting” their old pledges. And it’s true that there are striking similarities with promises made by Rishi Sunak to the North when he stood in a former railway station in Manchester back in 2023 and ditched the last remaining Northern leg of HS2.

And, the announcements were of funding for mayoralty regions. So questions about rail links between Northern cities went unanswered.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham introduced the Chancellor. He was upbeat when I talked to him for GB News.

He told me: “I'm confident, because people can see the change that we're already making. So, this isn't sort of pie in the sky or it'll happen one day. We're doing it.”

He pledges “the best integrated public transport system outside of London by the end of the decade” and with “the lowest fares possible”.

But on rail, he adds: “As good as today's news was, I will not be letting the Chancellor or the Government off the hook. Because when it comes to rail travel between the big cities of the north, it's nowhere near good enough.

“And the point I keep making is, why should people here be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to rail travel? Why should people lose half a morning if they're trying to go between Manchester and Leeds? They shouldn't. And we've had to put up with that for far too long.”

He and Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotherham are pushing for “an Elizabeth line for the north west between Liverpool and Manchester with five stops. No more. That would be a new spine for the public transport system in the north west of England.”

The money is coming from capital spending, so not hampered by the strict fiscal rules Reeves has imposed on day-to-day spending.

On schools, prisons, local Government and elsewhere, there is likely pain to come.

The projects will take many years, and people I spoke to are sceptical. There’s agreement that today’s plans sound good, “but will they be delivered?” one employee mused.

That is the question. 16 million people in the North have heard it all before.

For their sake, and for the Government’s own chances of getting back into power, they will need to be.