Conservative MPs have criticised the government after it watered down its railway plans and confirmed part of the HS2 high speed line will be scrapped.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, unveiled the £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan on Thursday which he said would slash journey times across the region with 110 miles of new high-speed line.
But the original proposal to extend of HS2 from the East Midlands to Leeds has been ditched.
The Northern Powerhouse Rail project has also been downgraded as a new line from Leeds to Manchester via Bradford will not be built.
Huw Merriman, the Conservative chairman of the transport committee, told the Commons: “The prime minister promised that HS2 and Northern Powerhouse rail was not an either/or option and those in Leeds and Bradford may be forgiven for viewing it today as neither.
“This is the danger in selling perpetual sunlight and leaving the others to explain the arrival of moonlight.
Robbie Moore, the Conservative MP for Keighley, said he was “deeply disappointed”.
“The Bradford district has been, in my view, completely short-changed,” he said.
“We are one of the most socially-deprived parts of the UK and we must get better transport connectivity, and I still want to see Northern Powerhouse Rail delivered with a main stop in Bradford, so that we can unlock our economic opportunities.”
Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh said while he believed HS2 was a “white elephant” it was now “a white elephant missing a leg”.
“We were promised it would relieve congestion on the east coast mainline because it was going to go to Leeds,” he said.
But Shapps defended the rail plan: “It is an ambitious and unparalleled programme that not only overhauls the inter city links between the North and Midlands but also speeds up the benefits for local areas and serves destinations people most want to reach.
“This plan will bring the North and the Midlands closer together, it will fire up economies to rival London and the South East, it will rebalance our economic geography, it will spread opportunity, it will level up the country.”
Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said it was “the betrayal of trust, the betrayal of promises and the betrayal of investment the north of England and the Midlands deserve”.
He told MPs: “There is no amount of gloss, no amount of spin that can be put on this.
“He promised HS2 to Leeds, he promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, he promised that the North would not be forgotten. But he hasn’t just forgotten us, he has completely sold us out.”
