A CONTROVERSIAL Government plan for rail schemes in the North and Midlands should be “reconsidered” to avoid a “missed opportunity”, MPs have warned.

The Transport Select Committee called for a full analysis of the wider economic impacts of the Integrated Rail Plan which the Department for Transport said contains £96 billion of investment.

In November 2021 the Government's plan included scrapping HS2’s eastern leg between the East Midlands and Leeds, and curtailing Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

Transport for the North, which advises the DfT, had recommended new lines being built between Liverpool and Leeds.

But the IRP revealed that the Government only intends to fund a new line between Warrington in Cheshire and Marsden in West Yorkshire, with the rest of the route only getting existing line improvements.

The Transport Select Committee states these decisions “will reduce the prospects of meeting ambitions for the North by limiting the vital capacity needed for growth”.

The “original purpose” of NPR was to connect cities such as Bradford, Hull, Leeds and Sheffield, and “enable them to grow”, the committee found, adding: “The evidence base for the IRP must be reconsidered in the light of these aims, if this once-in-a-generation investment in rail is not to be a missed opportunity.”