Plans to electrify the rail route between Manchester and Leeds are being watered down... and passengers are not happy.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said that the long-heralded plan to modernise the route was now likely to be downgraded - as he announced similar cutbacks to schemes in Wales and Midlands.

But the minister, who was in the region as work began on a new Manchester Airport’s terminal building, defended scrapping the plans to fully electrify the line and said that using ‘smart technology’ and new trains that ran on both diesel as well as electricity would still lead to improvements on the route.

However, he has been slammed by northern politicians and rail campaigners who have accused Theresa May’s government of ripping up a key plank of their northern transport policy.

Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell said: “This is extremely disappointing. The Manchester to Leeds connection is absolutely critical to the Northern Powerhouse and economic growth.

“We have had delay after delay, pause after pause and excuse after excuse in relation to the much needed upgrade so this is going to be quite a big blow for the region.”

(Image: PA)

The plan to fully electrify the route between the two cities- one of the busiest journeys in the country - was described as a ‘vital’ element of the £38bn upgrade of the rail network in the north.

Rail bosses say it would have slashed the average journey time between Leeds and Manchester to 40 minutes - a reduction of 14 minutes.

It had been announced as part of a huge infrastructure investment seen as being at the heart of George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse strategy.

Back in June 2015, the government controversially suspended the electrification scheme due to concerns about how the project was being managed.

This led to vocal concern by MPs and Manchester council boss Sir Richard Leese. Previous transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced a few months later that the scheme was ‘back on track’.

However now Mr Grayling appears to have confirmed that the scheme has been ‘modified’ - but he denied that the north was losing out to the south - despite billions of pounds being invested in London and the south east’s Cross Rail programme.

(Image: Mark Waugh)

Routes between Cardiff and Swansea; Kettering, Nottingham and Sheffield; and Windermere and Oxenholme in Cumbria, will also be affected and Labour have claimed Mr Grayling was breaking promises on upgrading the routes.

But speaking today, Mr Grayling said: “What people need to understand is the announcement was not about cancellation, it’s about making use of smart technology.

“What we’ve got on the railways is technology we didn’t have five or six years ago.

“We are not abandoning electrification, what we are doing is using electrification where it makes a difference.

“But when you have got a train that switches seamlessly from diesel to electric, there are places on the network you don’t actually need to start digging everything up and putting in place overhead cables, because you don’t derive a benefit to passengers.

He denied claims that passengers outside the capital and the South East were not getting their fair share of Government money spent on transport.

A recent study by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) North, showed Yorkshire and the Humber will get £190 per head, the North East £220, the North West £680 and London £1,940 for transport spending from 2016/17 onwards.

(Image: Dominic Salter)

Mr Grayling said the giant £14.8bn Crossrail project underneath London explained the difference in spend.

He added: “That skews the figures. If we were doing Northern Powerhouse rail, it would be the other way round, people in London saying, ‘Why are you spending more in Manchester?’

“You can’t just look at Crossrail which does distort all the national figures. It’s because we have got this one big project that creates a difference.

“And as HS2 goes north and Northern Powerhouse rail happens, you will see the balance shift the other way.”

He said improvements were “happening now” outside the capital, citing the Ordsall Chord in Manchester, linking the city’s two main train stations, Piccadilly and Victoria, £300 million of improvements to railways in Liverpool, and investments by Northern Rail, the UK’s largest train operator outside London, spending £580 million on 98 new electric and diesel trains.

Mr Grayling unveiled Manchester airport’s £1bn investment to expand Terminal 2 and make other improvements.