Majority of officials who downgraded northern rail plans don’t live there

Only a quarter of those who wrote Integrated Rail Plan rely on north of England's sub-par services

Only a quarter of the government officials responsible for cancelling HS2 to Yorkshire and downgrading plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) actually live in the north of England and rely on the region's sub-par trains, the Guardian has learned.

Of the 24 officials in the Department for Transport (DfT) responsible for writing the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), just six live in the north, the DfT admitted in response to a freedom of information (FoI) request.