REGIONAL mayors and council leaders from across the North and Midlands have drawn up plans for better rail links after the government dumped its promise to extend its much-vaunted HS2 project to north-east England.

They say their blueprint could be implemented at a little over half the price of the abandoned HS2 link and bring huge improvements to rail links between the north-east, Leeds, Sheffield, the east Midlands, Birmingham and London.

The three-phase plan would cost just over £8 billion to complete, cutting £7.4bn from the government’s forecasted cost of the HS2 eastern leg as originally proposed.

Leeds City Council leader James Lewis and Nottinghamshire County Council leader Ben Bradley MP, co-chairs of the HS2 East partnership, said: “The North and Midlands desperately need the inter-city and inter-regional rail connectivity that will bolster our post-pandemic economic recovery and growth, better connecting our communities and bringing jobs and opportunities within easier reach.”

They said the plan would improve the national rail network and could be completed by the late 2040s.