Roads are used by pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists, drivers of cars and vans, and passengers in cars, buses and coaches. In total, 96% of all personal journeys are made by these modes, amounting to 88% of personal distance travelled.

As almost every journey involves a road at some point, our highways need to be safe, resilient and efficient to enable economic growth

Our vision for the North is for transformational economic growth that is socially inclusive and delivers a resilient net zero economy. 

Achieving this requires a fundamental change in how we manage, maintain and invest in our transport networks, including our roads.  
 
We have set out an objective for zero growth in total passenger vehicle miles per year on the North’s road network. Meeting this will require significant changes to the way we travel, with more people, more often using public transport and active travel modes  

Read our STP
Bus and cyclist in Manchester city centre
Bus and cyclist in Manchester city centre

What we're doing

Transport for the North works with national partners on shaping plans for investment in our nationally important transport networks, including the strategic and major roads connecting cities and towns within and beyond our region. With these roads carrying more than two-thirds of all road freight miles and one-third of car and passenger miles.

Read our STP

Our Strategic Transport Plan and Major Roads report set out our priorities for the North’s Major Roads, these are:
 

  • Enabling sustainable growth in employment and housing
     
  • Decarbonising our transport system, with road transport responsible for the vast majority of transport related carbon emissions. Achieving modal shift from car to public transport, walking and cycling along with a rapid shift to Zero Emissions Vehicles is critical to meeting ambitions to meet net zero carbon emissions from transport.
     
  • Improving the customer experience, including the safety, reliability and resilience for all travel modes using the road network.
     
  • Maintaining and renewing existing highway assets, ensuring our roads are safe and resilient, in particular adapting to the impacts of climate change.
     
  • Enabling the efficient movement of people and goods, through maximising the effectiveness of existing roads and targeted investment in new transport measures where needed.  
Major Road Network
The M621 outside Leeds
Two electric cars parked in at Wrightington

Using our extensive evidence base and technical tools we help shape planning for investment on the National Highways Strategic Road Network (SRN) and

Work we are doing includes:

  • Providing evidence and support for the full dualling of the A66 Scotch Corner – Penrith.  
  • Supporting work on developing options for improving safety, reliability and resilience of travel on the A628/A616 corridor between Manchester and Sheffield, the A590 / A595 upgrades in Westmoreland. 
  • Advocating for targeted investment in supporting sustainable growth in housing and jobs and on improving safety, reliability and resilience for all road users on the Strategic and Major Road Networks. This includes making the case for North to get its fair share of funding through the Road Investment Strategy (RIS).  
  • Appraising the vulnerability of our transport systems in the North to the effects of the increasing severity of climate hazards. We will use this evidence to support our partners with developing the business case for their maintenance and renewal programmes. 
  • We are providing evidence to support planning the transition to zero emission vehicles (see our EVCI webpages), support for bus service improvements plans (see Bus pages) and our Carbon Assessment Playbook used to aid decision making on policies and investment needed to reduce carbon emissions in line with commitments to meeting net zero emissions.  
EV charging in road
MRR cover sheffield road traffic, female cycling, ev charge
Major Roads Report | Dec 2021

This Major Roads Report sets out the scale of the challenge as we look to enhance their safety and reduce their environmental impact.

MRR Summary cover sheffield road traffic, ev charge, female cycling
Major Roads Report Summary | Dec 2021

A summary of the Major Roads Report that outlines the critical role that the North’s strategic roads play in enabling our residents and businesses to go about their daily li