THE Prime Minister has announced that Network Rail is to start the next stage of work to ‘unblock Manchester’s railways’ after being given £10 million in design and development funding. The work will examine options to solve capacity and reliability problems. The DfT said ‘this is the next step in the Government’s programme to transform rail services in northern England following the nationalisation of Northern Rail in March’. Mr Johnson also revealed that the rest of a £100 million transport budget will be spent on road schemes.