Rail bosses were slammed yesterday after unveiling plans for a new high-speed east-west rail service across northern England while plotting to axe jobs and services under new franchises for the area.

The £7 billion taxpayer-funded HS3 project was announced yesterday by Australian-British businessman Sir David Higgins, executive chairman of the north-south HS2 high-speed rail project and former chief executive of Network Rail.

He said the route will reduce journey times by half between centres including Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, York, Birmingham and Nottingham.

But the government-backed project will take years to complete.

And the plans were attacked by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), which pointed out that supporters of the plan — the Department for Transport and Rail North — both ran the consultation process for rail franchises in the region.

General secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT has led the fight for expansion and modernisation of rail services in the north but it is cynical in the extreme that the cheerleaders behind today’s announcement, the government and Rail North, are the same bodies threatening to devastate jobs and services through the new Northern and Trans-Pennine Express franchises.

“RMT will not tolerate this rank hypocrisy and instead of jam tomorrow, light years off in the future, we are demanding an expansion of services and capacity now, rather than the proposed cuts, and that is the message we will be taking to Parliament in our lobby over the northern franchise carve-up on November 4.”

Under new franchises for Northern Rail the successful bidder will introduce driver-only trains, sacking guards and conductors. Trans-Pennine operators will have the option to do the same.

Ticket office closures and service reductions are planned.

Further criticism of the HS3 plan came from the influential Institute of Economic Affairs (IER).

IER head of transport Dr Richard Wellings said: “The proposal for a new high-speed rail link in the north is little more than a costly vanity project.

“HS3 is an expensive and inefficient way to link northern cities, which are relatively close in distance. A high-speed rail line would make little difference to door-to-door journey times for most travellers, northern conurbations being geographically spread out to include numerous different towns.

“Rather than creating headline-grabbing policies, government resources would be better spent on smaller-scale schemes that deliver high returns for the taxpayer.”