The government has set its sights on a ‘HS3’ rail line, despite the case for HS2 still being hotly contested.
Chancellor George Osborne says that a high speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds could create a ‘northern global powerhouse’.
Affected people from across the route of the HS2 line will get the chance to have the say on the scheme at a series of parliamentary committee hearings this year.
The committee of supposedly ‘neutral’ MPs could make sweeping changes to the scheme.
But speaking to Radio 4’s Today Programme Mr Osborne signalled that he had set his sights higher than just the HS2 development.
He said: “We need an ambitious plan to make the cities and town here in this northern belt radically more connected from east to west - to create the equivalent of travelling around a single global city.”