George Osborne talks of investing in transport to carry people out of poverty, but the money has to be made available, and not just in the south-east
The scene: Liverpool. The date: 15 September 1830. The occasion: the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Duke of Wellington, the then prime minister, was on hand to watch as inventor and entrepreneur George Stephenson drove the first of a procession of steam-hauled trains along the world’s first inter-city railway line. It was the dawn of the railway age, and the first northern hub.
Infrastructure has always mattered. The industrial revolution was not just the story of cotton mills and iron foundries. It was about canals, railways and tarmacadam roads. Big changes to the way people and goods could move around the country boosted growth and transformed the economy.
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