Image source, BENNETTS ASSOCIATES

We're winding up our live coverage now. Thanks for joining us.

As we've been reporting, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs earlier that his plan would include the scrapping of HS2's eastern line to Leeds.

If you'd like to know more about the new direction for HS2, have a read of our explainer.

For more local and political reaction to the government's new rail plan, take a look at some of our latest stories here and here.

And what do politicians mean when they say 'levelling up'? Get the lowdown here.

Today's live page was written by Jennifer Meierhans, Doug Faulkner, Mary O'Connor and Paul Seddon.

It was edited by Emma Owen.

Before we go, we just want to tell you what passengers on a train from Hull to Leeds have been saying about the Intergrated Rail Plan, external.

Businessman Phil Jones said: "I'm more interested in the link between Hull and Manchester across the north than I've ever been about HS2 and want towns across the north better connected by rail and by electrification and by a better service in general."

HS2 will not go to Leeds as planned but will stop at East Midlands Parkway and the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme will not deliver a new line between Manchester and Leeds.

However, the transport secretary said there will be a high speed link between Manchester and on to West Yorkshire.

Meanwhile commuter Katie Haddock said: "It's a massive disappointment for me because I've just started a new job working in Leeds and London and I'm having to decide whether I can continue with that, because the commute is such a problem and really affects daily life.

The government says its £96bn plan is an "ambitious and unparalleled programme" to overhaul inter-city links across the north and Midlands.

It says it will "study how best to take HS2 trains into Leeds" and will look at a mass transport system for West Yorkshire.

We're going to be wrapping up our coverage shortly so here's a reminder of what has happened today:

• The government has unveiled its £96bn Integrated Rail Plan to overhaul inter-city links across the North and Midlands
• The planned HS2 eastern line to Leeds has been scrapped, with a new route from Warrington to Manchester ending at the "western border" of Yorkshire
• The government says it will "study how best to take HS2 trains into Leeds"
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the new proposals will bring down journey times in the North and Midlands "much sooner than under previous plans"
• He also said the government would look at a mass transport system for West Yorkshire
• And he announced investment in contactless ticketing as well as funding to electrify track
• Boris Johnson called it a "monumental programme" and said improvements to lines would bring confidence to commuters
• But there has been criticism of the plans, particularly from northern MPs including Leeds Central's Hilary Benn who said the North had been "betrayed"
• Labour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon described the plan as a "great train robbery", saying it was a massive blow to the regions

You can see the full plan here, external.

Residents in the East Midlands towns and villages affected by the original HS2 scheme say they are relieved that part of the route is being axed.

Geoff Cotton, who has lived in Trowell since 1988, says he would have seen HS2 come past his house.

"Obviously it's pleasing from a selfish point of view, but I do also feel that the way the economy is working at the moment with people working from home more, the need to travel down to London fast isn't as significant as it would have been," he says.

However, he criticises the amount of time the decision has taken.

"People haven't been able to move on with their lives because they can't sell their properties."

Jill Sisson, who has lived in Trowell for more than 50 years, says she is "quite happy" her home will no longer be demolished.

"To have been living with all this pressure is very hard. I don't think it's been handled very well. One minute you're hearing one thing and the next minute you're hearing something else.

"It leaves you up in the air as to what's going to happen. It's all the uncertainty."

You can read more reaction from the East Midlands here.

Image source, PA Media

More reaction to today's announcement...

Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell, Labour, says people will struggle to understand why the government "expects Northerners to be grateful for piecemeal improvements to our creaking, 20th century rail system" when there are state-of-the-art HS2 links that benefit the South and Crossrail in London. She says it is "mend and make do" for the North.

She describes the plan as a "major strategic blunder" and says it was an opportunity to transform the North.

Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesborough, says that the North East has been forgotten for too long, with rail commuters facing poor service on inadequate infrastructure.

He says: "It’s a different world compared with the South East."

Conservative Andy Carter, Warrington South MP, says it is "really reassuring" to see Warrington feature prominently in the government's rail plan.

He says the new high speed line between Warrington and Manchester will release capacity on the existing network and will have benefits for the town centre.

But he says that he wants to see those benefits realised as soon as possible, adding "people cannot wait forever to see material differences".

And Sheffield MP Louise Haigh, Labour, is critical of the plan.

"This report was more than 12 months overdue, and it definitely was not worth the wait.

"The prime minister has once again shown people across the north of England that they do not matter to him or his government.

"This is another in a long line of broken promises by this prime minister to the people of the North."

More union reaction, and Unite has described the government’s decision to cancel the HS2 spur to Leeds as an "act of industrial vandalism."

Image source, PA Media

Unite national officer for construction Jerry Swain said: "This decision has put back national infrastructure planning by a generation. It is nothing short of industrial vandalism.

“By cancelling the Leeds spur the government's demonstrating it's not serious about its levelling up agenda and that its manifesto commitment to improving regional connectivity was nothing but hot air.

"HS2 should be the gold standard of construction projects for the next decade and beyond. The entire UK should be benefiting from this development."

The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said the £96bn programme will "transform services in the north and the Midlands," calling the scheme the "largest single rail investment ever made by a UK government".

Reality Check

Announcing the Integrated Rail Plan, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps spoke not just of rail investment but of wider transport commitments.

He said the plan was also about those places that “connect and interact” with HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, adding “we are investing £2bn in walking and cycling”.

However, this is not a new funding announcement.

In May last year, the government announced £2bn for walking and cycling as part of a UK-wide package to “boost greener, active transport”., external

Image source, PA Media

Some reaction has been coming in from business leaders and travel groups.

Matthew Fell, chief policy director at the Confederation of British Industry, says the plan involves significant investment which goes some way "towards modernising our ageing rail networks".

But he says businesses across the Midlands and northern England will be "justifiably disappointed to see the goalposts have moved at the eleventh hour".

Sir John Peace, chair of transport research group Midlands Connect says while the plans have changed "there are a lot of positives in here and lots of things to be excited about".

He says the government "should move as quickly as possible to get spades in the ground and bring benefits to local people sooner".

Anthony Smith, chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, says to help meet decarbonisation targets sustained investment in public transport in the North and Midlands must continue.

"Ultimately passengers will judge the success of these plans on the extent to which they meet their priorities for improvement: more punctual, reliable services, increased capacity and the chance of getting a seat on the train," he says.

Andy Bagnall, director general of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents independent train operators, says rail has a vital role to play in "driving the economy" and a "fair, clean recovery" - with millions of people set to benefit from boosting connectivity between northern cities and the Midlands.

However, he warns that "leaving out key pieces of the jigsaw will inevitably hold back the ability for the railways to power the levelling up agenda and the drive to net zero".

Reality Check

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a business pressure group chaired by former chancellor George Osborne, has been looking at the £96bn rail investment announced by the government.

It estimates the full HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail projects, as previously planned, would have ended up costing about £127.5bn.

That estimate would make the alternative £96bn programme set out on Thursday at least £30bn cheaper.

The pressure group reckons about £17bn of the savings will come from the difference in cost between the scrapped eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds and the proposed new lines and upgrades proposed for the area.

The rest comes from cheaper options on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

They’re working through the figures in the government’s publication and expect to have more precise numbers later in the day.

Estimates of costs of big rail projects are notoriously unreliable.

When HS2 was first announced, the whole thing was only supposed to cost about £33bn.

Nonetheless, some might argue it's hard to describe any of the £96bn as new money if it’s a result of scrapping some rail projects and spending the money on alternatives.

We have asked the Department for Transport for its response to these costings.

Image source, Getty Images

The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) has given its reaction to the government's plans - and concluded that Bradford will be "the biggest loser".

A report out earlier this week found the city has the worst connections of any city in the UK, despite being the UK's seventh largest city and being centrally located.

It came bottom of the list due to a lack of direct rail routes and slow connections. There are only four trains to London, for example, each day.

The West Yorkshire city had been hoping to be connected to Manchester and Leeds along a new high-speed line, which today's plan confirms will not go ahead in full.

Instead, there will be a mixture of newly-built line and upgrades to existing track. The government says journey times to and from Bradford will still be cut.

But Manuel Cortes, the TSSA's general secretary, says the plan shows the government has "sold out the North with more broken promises".

We're still catching up on a few threads from the Commons discussion earlier, and Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, made the point that today's announcement scraps "much-needed" plans to improve rail capacity and connections, and comes weeks after the Chancellor announced cuts to domestic flight taxes.

She challenged the transport secretary to answer "how these plans together deliver against either of their stated objectives to level up or to tackle climate change?"

Shapps responded by saying: "In all of these decisions we're having to balance the wider purse, the taxpayers' money."

He notes the expenditure on rail, adding "it's always my goal to get more people travelling on the trains" and that "these plans will help that".

Grant Shapps' announcement - in particular news that HS2's eastern leg is to be scrapped - has been met with elation by some campaigners in south Yorkshire.

Sandra Haith has spent five and half years fighting the original plans, which would have seen the line cut through the east side of the village of Bramley, Rotherham, as it followed the M18 motorway.

She says: "Not only as a resident of Bramley, but as a taxpayer, it's a complete waste of money.

"The eastern leg costs a lot of money and it basically connects two cities. We can't get on it. We've got all the pain and no gain.

"This village and other villages have been under this blight for five and a half years.

"People have already sold up and moved out because they can't live with the stress."

You can read more here.

Image source, PA Media

The government has now published its Integrated Rail Plan , externaland in a foreword, Boris Johnson says the old plans had "got the balance wrong".

"They focused too much on showpiece, high speed links and too little on local services - less glamorous perhaps, but more important to most people," he writes.

He says the new plan helps larger cities but also smaller places and does not neglect short-distance services "which people use every day".

He writes that it has become clear under the original plan "high speed lines would not have reached the East Midlands and Yorkshire, until at best the early to mid 2040s".

The prime minister adds that while some people had called for the government to "rigidly stick to the old plans", they were in effect "condemning the North and the East Midlands to get nothing for ten years or more".

Change will be noticeable but falls short of aspirationspublished at 12:51 Greenwich Mean Time 18 November 2021

12:51 GMT 18 November 2021

Danny Savage
North of England correspondent

If life is about compromises then a very big one has just been put upon northern England.

It doesn’t have the same train commuter culture as south east England because the stations and rail lines aren’t there but it does aspire to have something which allows better use of public transport. To level up.

Currently it is a land where new trains run on old lines.

Yorkshire wanted to be at one end of HS2. A new high speed line across the Pennines has been seriously talked about - arguably promised by Boris Johnson.

The compromise is the new connection between Yorkshire and Birmingham will be partially high speed and the new line between West Yorkshire and Manchester will be high speed west of the Pennines. The rest of the existing line via Huddersfield will be upgraded.

Journey times will be quicker - and many people will be satisfied with that. Others will be left wondering what could have been.

At present, Leeds to Manchester Victoria takes 53 minutes on the fastest service. This will get much better but not before years of engineering work.

Journey times cross country from York and the north-east will also improve. There’s a pledge to give a large part of urban West Yorkshire a mass transit system. That could finally see trams in Leeds - something talked about for decades. Bradford gets a faster connection to Leeds but is left in the sidings again in transpennine terms.

£96bn on the railways is a lot of money - change will be noticeable - but it falls far short of aspirations this government built up.

Image source, Getty Images

A commuter from Leeds who travels by train for work in Birmingham, Sheffield and London says the decision to scrap the HS2 line to Leeds is no surprise to him.

Speaking to the BBC on the train to Birmingham Anthony Stalgis tells us: "I knew this would happen".

“The government is so London-centric that the risk of HS2 turning into a project to expand the London commuter belt was very high indeed.

“If the project had been properly risk assessed, that risk would have led to starting from Leeds and working down to make sure the risk didn't take place.

“It’s hard not to believe that scrapping the northern bit was the plan all along.

“As for the North, the rail connections between Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield are a national disgrace. We call it snail rail. It’s quicker to drive in some cases.

“As usual it's London making decisions from London by Londoners."

Image source, UK POOL

Labour leader Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson has today "ripped up" his promises to take HS2 all the way to Leeds, and build a new line between the city and Manchester.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Bradford, he says the north of England has been betrayed.

"This was the first test of levelling up, and the government has completely failed and let down everybody in the North," he says.

He adds that today's plan reveals the levelling up ambition is "just a slogan".

A reminder on what levelling up is, here.

Tony Roe
BBC East Midlands political editor

I've been travelling with the Prime Minister this morning. I joined him at Newark for a short hop to Doncaster.

He pored over a rail map and pointed out that HS2 is going to be delivered to the East Midlands despite earlier reports of its demise.

A multi-billion pound investment which will, however, only take the new line to East Midlands Parkway.

He also pledged the long-awaited and long-demanded electrification of the whole Midlands mainline which runs through Leicester and Nottingham to Sheffield.

And while HS2 will halt at the Parkway station near East Midlands Airport, the line will continue to Toton and a new rail transport hub will still be built there connecting local services.

And it may not be the end of the full eastern leg.

That could still happen in the long term.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has outlined the government's Integrated Rail Plan in the House of Commons.

Here's a recap of what's been said:

• The £96bn plan is an "ambitious and unparalleled programme" to overhaul inter-city links across the north and Midlands, Shapps said
• The planned eastern line to Leeds has been scrapped, with a new route from Warrington to Manchester ending at the "western border" of Yorkshire
• The government will "study how best to take HS2 trains into Leeds", he says
• The new proposals will bring down journey times in the North and Midlands "much sooner than under previous plans", he adds
• He also said the government would look at a mass transport system for West Yorkshire
• And he announced investment in contactless ticketing as well as funding to electrify track in the North and Midlands
• Labour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon described the plan as a "betrayal" and a "great train robbery" saying it was a massive blow to the regions

You can see the full plan here, external (a word of warning it does come to 161 pages).

Image source, PA Media

The PM says the rail plans announced earlier will produce commuter benefits, even if it does destroy parts of the English countryside.

"We are not just digging huge swathes of new rail across virgin countryside through peaceful villages which is what some of the critics are saying we should be doing more of," he says.

"We are doing a bit of that, there's no doubt about it, we are building 100 miles of high speed line. But we are also improving and upgrading the commuter network to shorten journey times across the whole north of the country," he says.

Asked how he will make sure people can afford to travel by train, he says: "The way to cut costs on train travel is to modernise and electrify and that's what we are doing."

He says setting mass footfall will enable government to start to drive the cost down.

The PM says HS2 plus Northern Powerhouse rail "will offer for young people commuting in the Midlands and the North the same type of confidence about their daily lives, about their commutes, as people have been used to for a century in the south."

Conservative Huw Merriman, the chairman of the Transport Select Committee, has told the Commons that the prime minister promised that HS2 and Northern Powerhouse rail "was not an either/or option" but says that those in Leeds and Bradford may view it as "neither".

"This is the danger in selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it for others to explain the arrival of moonlight," he says.

He says that the new plan includes some "fantastic projects" which will slash journey times and better connect northern cities.

He then asks, given the expense of electrification in the UK, what steps have been taken to ensure the projects will be delivered on time and on budget.

Grant Shapps says the rail minister is carrying out an electrification challenge to bring the industry in and push them to build on electrification "much faster than currently happens".