This morning government finally announced its plans for high speed rail to and within the North of England, after fevered speculation that it would deliver a cut price version of original plans.
The plan announced by Grant Shapps does deliver part of what Northern leaders had asked for - but far from all, cutting their requested investment roughly in half and replacing much of the new track originally requested with upgrades to existing routes.
Instead of a 40-mile new high speed line all the way from Manchester to Leeds, a new line is proposed from Warrington to Marsden in Yorkshire, where it will be tacked onto an upgraded Transpennine route. READ MORE: Boris Johnson's rail plan for Manchester - in his own words It is understood the
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