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Ministers are set to promise a new version of HS2’s cancelled leg between Birmingham and Manchester as part of an overhaul of rail infrastructure in the north.
On Wednesday, the government will announce its much-delayed plans for major new and upgraded east-west rail links across the north of England, in a project known as Northern Powerhouse Rail.
The plans will include a commitment to a new Birmingham to Manchester line after NPR is delivered, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Labour has not previously announced plans to replace any northern elements of HS2 cancelled by previous Conservative administrations.
The high-speed rail line was originally designed as a Y-shaped route up to Birmingham and then two separate northern lines to Manchester and to Leeds.
In 2021, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson killed off the route to Leeds in an attempt to cut the cost of the scheme. Then in 2023 his successor Rishi Sunak cancelled the north-west leg to Manchester.
The decision caused outcry in the north of England and left the chronically congested West Coast Mainline with no alternative plan to solve its capacity crisis.
Since taking power in 2024 Labour had been reluctant to make any commitments to replacing either cancelled northern leg.
Costs on the first leg from London to Birmingham, which is already under construction, have spiralled and are expected to surpass £100bn, the FT reported on Tuesday.
Ministers instead opted to prioritise the revival of NPR, a separate decade-old plan to connect the cities of northern England from east to west, which had drifted under the last parliament.
On Wednesday, chancellor Rachel Reeves is now expected to commit to NPR after months of negotiation with northern mayors.
The project is expected to take over a decade, starting with upgrades in Yorkshire, followed by a new Manchester to Liverpool line and further electrification elsewhere in the north.
After that, the government now intends to build the new line between Birmingham and Manchester.
Details of the speed or specification of the proposed new line were not immediately clear. The announcement would not include timescales or details on funding, a government official said.
Labour mayors in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester last year drew up outline proposals for a new line funded through a public-private partnership.
